Aug 30, 2011

Do allow me to touch your feet

চরণ ধরিতে
chorono dhorite
(audio)

Do allow me to touch your feet
Do not, please do not, step away
With my life and in death
Through my joys and sorrows
Close to my heart, I will hold them

My burden of desires, I can tether no more
How long do I roam around with this load
Wreathe a garland with your own hands
Do not let me come apart

Ever athirst is desire
Save me by quelling it
May it win it's last triumph
By succumbing to you

The petty trifles of this self
Door to door I can sell no more
Do please, O please do make me yours
Garlanding me with your embrace

- 17th May 1914

Aug 26, 2011

Tearful eyes smudged with kohl

হেরিয়া শ্যামল ঘন নীল গগনে
Heriya shyamol ghono neel gogone

A darkness in the deep azure
Calls to mind the tearful eyes smudged with kohl

Lips smeared with a deep compassion
Outlined in such an earnest plea
A silent gaze in the hour of parting

The rain pours down, lashes lightning
The wind races through woods in crazed song

Making way through a shooting pain
Thoughts of whom stir within my heart

Dense, opaque, overcast are skies

গহন ঘন ছাইল
Gohon ghono chhailo

Dense, opaque, overcast are skies
Woods stupefied into stillness
A quiet hush in all directions
All of creation in suspense -
   Who knows what will happen
Descends a deep darkness of night
Guardian angels shudder in fear

In sudden flashes now and then
Startles lightning racing about
Lighting up but for a moment
Sink the tremulous earth and skies
Into a pitch-dark inkiness

The rumbling of clouds cannot wake
Silent darkness from its stupor
Asudden is aroused the breeze
In a roaring crack of thunder

Aug 25, 2011

You have no qualms in letting me forget

আমায় ভুলতে দিতে নাইকো
Amay bhulte dite naiko tomar bhoy
(audio link)

You are not afraid to let me hover
To amble with an absent heart;
Since there is always an end to my drift,
But your love knows no bars.

Even if I may feel distant from you,
For you, no distance is that remote.
Even if my heart may stay furrowed,
Does that mean spring is not in bloom?

It is a game we play, often enough,
As you contentedly lose to me,
Yet win in your own sweet way
Through the glory of a chosen defeat.



(another version by Anandamayee Majumdar:)

You are not afraid to let me hover
To amble with an absent heart;
Since there is always an end to my drift,
But your love knows no bars.

Even if I may feel distant from you, 
For you, no distance is that remote.
Though my heart folds up
Does that mean Spring is not here
At your call?

It is a game we play, often enough,
You contentedly losing to me,
Yet winning in your own sweet way,
Through the glory of a chosen defeat.

Aug 24, 2011

I know not of austere penance

জানি নাই গো সাধন
Jani nai go shadhon

I know not of austere penance
Endeavoured in your name
Merely do I play in the dust
Seated beside your door

Ignorant I was, so with ease
I sought you however I pleased
I feared you not in the darkness

Your sagacious disciples rebuke me
 “Go back! You haven’t come the proper way”

You hold me back in your embrace
Cutting off the means of return
In vain they call time and again

Aug 21, 2011

A bouquet of smiles she held in her hands

তার হাতে ছিল হাসির ফুলের হার
Tar haatey chhilo hashir phuler haar

A bouquet of smiles she held in her hands
Of many a hue and colour
I was weighed down by the fruit of sorrow
Nurtured and ripened with my tears

Asudden she came the fair one
And said to me “Let us exchange”
I gazed at her visage
O so captivating!

She took my spread of sombre clouds
Glanced at me with an amused look
I took her flowers of verdant spring
And held it to my bosom

“I have won”, she said with a smile
As she hastened on far away

In the hour of dusky twilight
At the end of the scorching day
Faded had all the flowers she gave

Whom have you left behind

তুই ফেলে এসেছিস কারে
Tui phele eshechhish kaarey (audio)

Whom have you left behind?
My heart! O heart of mine
Passes by a lifetime
Yet peace you do not find
My heart! O heart of mine

The path you took to veer away
You have now forgotten its way
How will you return to her door?
My heart! O heart of mine

I lend my ear to the flow of rivers
A rustle of leaves has me all astir

My heart says I will find the way
If I can know what flowers say
The trail that seeks the evening star
And then goes on further beyond
My heart! O heart of mine

Aug 18, 2011

Do let me just sit beside you

তুমি একটু কেবল বসতে দিয়ো কাছে
Tumi ektu kebol boshte diyo kachhey

Do let me just sit beside you
      for just a little while
I’ll tend to all the tasks at hand
      just a little later

My heart knows not ease
If it cannot gaze upon your face
The more I run around in chores
I flounder in deep sea sans shores

Spring has come with impassioned breath
Rushing to my casement
A lazy bee buzzes past
Flitting about the arbours

Today is the time to sit
And gaze into your eyes so deep
Alone together in quietude
Today is the time to sing
Of surrendering my all
In leisure so quiet and still

Aug 13, 2011

Pleasant a play this is not

নয় এ মধুর খেলা
noy e modhur khela

Pleasant a play this is not
You and me from dawn to dusk
Through each and every day

Many a time went out the light
Thundered in a stormy night
This cradle of worldly life
Rocked by doubt and dilemma

Time and again ran amok
A deluge breaking through dams
Arose on days of despair
A plaintive wail all around

O terrible One
In times of woe and of joy
It is this my heart realized
Much is the pain in your love
Not a trace of neglect

Aug 8, 2011

I can not sleep tonight

আজি নাহি নাহি নিদ্রা আঁখিপাতে
Aji nahi nahi nidra ankhipate
(Audio link: Sagar Sen)

I can not sleep tonight.
There I see a light burning at yours.
I am far and bare seeking grace from you. 
The wind is lost and moaning.
The night is beaten down by thunder.
Please open the door.
Show me your heart, my master.

(another version by Rumela)

My eyes know no sleep tonight
I see lamps light up your abode
Far away in the darkness outside
I stay awake with folded hands

The wind wails having lost it’s way
The night swoons struck by lightning
Do open the doors O Lord
Take mercy and show yourself
In this night of sorrow

Aug 2, 2011

Where the sky and earth mingle

ধরণীর গগনের মিলনের ছন্দে
Dhoroneero gogonero milonero chhonde (audio link)

Where the sky and earth mingle
Symphony exudes,
Cradles the monsoon breeze --
High with the aura of Maaloti.

The monsoon rejoices;
       Sraabon* knells her bass melodies,
A verdant earth quivers with life.
Shores of riverbeds,
              Stilled in anticipation
While waves heave with resonance.


The arbors have found heart
      In rhythms of rainy eloquence.
Deep, young thunder-claps
Ever so often, couple
      With spurts of lightning.

*Sraabon - the second month of monsoon, and the fourth month of the Bangla calendar

Aug 1, 2011

Where does my heart wander

কোথা যে উধাও হল
Kotha je udhao holo

Where does my heart wander,
Roving away in the thick of rains?
Deep percussions, thundering rhythms
Of rich resonance, cascades of rain
Meet the gazing eye, cloak horizons;
My soul soars, racing restive winds,
Reaching out for space, 
                         Resting on eternity.