unawares, I heard a clarion call

অকারণে অকালে মোর পড়ল যখন ডাক
*Awkarone okaale mor porlo jokhon daak (audio: Debabrata Biswas)

I don't know why, unawares, 
I heard a clarion call
when I lay down and softly slumbered.
I found the world wonder-struck 
in a starry starry night.
Nature lay still in dark encumbered.

My dear ones, anxiously they cried,
'how will you see through the night?'
I answered, 'I could travel 
with my own light,
I have with me 
the flame of rich amber.'

The more the lamp burned 
it left me confounded
the brightness blinding me of all reason
casting shadows and fallacies around me 
figments of truth lost me my vision.

The more I hustled with my pride
the more I lost my sight
The wind blew and blew again
and down went the light.
On my way, it riddled me with treason.

All at once, branches struck my face
all at once, my lamp had died out.
I found I had lost my trail
long ago, in haze.
I found the night black and looming large.

I wept in sorrow, crying out in shame,
'I have in me nothing left to claim,'
and as I turned, He had come my way,
my friend of life, in all my misadventure.

*An attempt has been made to restore the original rhythm