Divulge your face now

এবার   অবগুণ্ঠন খোলো
Ebar obogunThono kholo (audio link) 


Divulge your face now.
As the magic of opaque clouds and soft shades in the forests
complete their loot.
Reveal your soul-secrets with whispers of the night, 
Shiuli-fragrant, vivid in mature moonlight.
Allow your tearfulness to marry a demure smile,
a rendezvous, somehow unfold in the flute-like savory Madhabi wilderness.
Discover a new rhythm of love: tryst, intermittent with yearning
to dance by, in the dewy breeze, in the florid web of shade and light.

Girl.. of fifteen..

ওগো তুমি পঞ্চদশী

(ogo tumi ponchadashi)

Girl of fifteen,
touching.. the fullness.. of the moon..
a hint of a smile alights your dreaminess..
sudden.. wild.. tweets.. solemnize.. your juvenescence..
your slumber.. fragrant with
the first.. fresh watery buds.. of monsoon..
your heartthrobs.. become.. whispers of the forest..
An untenable melancholy.. shades your mind..
like the dark blue.. rainy.. horizon..
as tears.. gather.. in your eyes..

Show up my love, ignite the lamp

এসো গো, জ্বেলে দিয়ে যাও প্রদীপখানি
Esho go jele diye jao (Debarata Biswas audio link)
       
Show up my love, ignite the lamp
In my hushed hut,
A day of high rain meets dusky twilight,
Shadowy clouds blot the forests.

Create an epiphany as I await you,
In the mild sweetness of braided jasmines,
With the blue stole of yours, shade our rendezvous,
Like the splendor of a prolific night.

Yet my flute is lost and I have no music to summon you.
As I gaze at your path with speechless longing,
Do you hear me?
Can you fathom my quivering heart in the teary wind?

Brown, indigenous child

 ওগো সাঁওতালি ছেলে

Ogo shaontali chhele (audio)

Brown, indigenous child,

As enchanting as the

Juvenile, opaque, emerald season
I discover you,
Unfolding your heart
Through rustic tunes, an earthly flute,

Hovering beyond plush meadows,
Opulent groves

Like a rain-messenger

Monsoon clouds,
Misted with cobalt blue
Elbow in from the east
Deepening your dark skin.

The sun's gorgeousness reflects

On your sparse, buff wear.

You fascinate me
With your silent treasure
-- a bud of monsoon,
Left at my doorstep
In quiet affinity

My monsoon melodies

Hover in the sky

Like a flight of swans,

Voicing your tunes

Our hearts meet

Through the tempest

In the tossing Tomaal,

Walking down with the beat

Immersed in cloudy shadows.

Deluging, endless rains

উতল-ধারা বাদল ঝরে
Utol dhara badol jhore (audio)

Deluging, endless rains
A lonely detained day

The wind, full of dampness
The river, rejuvenating, wild
Clouds, soft, enhancing
Shadows misting the wilderness.

And then in sudden epiphany
You arrive, my friend,
Bewildering my monsoon twilight
Making me anxious
To wipe your wetness
To let my tresses dry your feet

Let the night deepen
Let the darkness grow opaque
As I light my beacon of love
As I splay my heart to hold you

(another version by Rumela)

The clouds drizzle in restless flow
All day long alone in my room
A rain-soaked breeze blows strongly
The maddened river surges and swells
Dark clouds envelop the skies
Darkening the Tamal woods
O my beloved, you came at last
In what a state at the end of day
I will dry the damp with my veil
I will wipe your feet with my tresses
The dark night will deepen
I will light the lamp of love
I will lay down my heart
For you to rest your feet on
Forgetting life and death
I will welcome you in
I will overcome my coyness
And stand beside you today
Bonds and barriers will burn away
I will subdue joy and sorrow
Together with you on this stormy night
I will step outside without a fear
The clouds drizzle in restless flow
You opened the door and came inside
My eyes blinded by the flash
My heart awakened in thrill
I wish to look at your face
I lift my gaze and quiver in fright

You offered me your first yield

বাদল-দিনের প্রথম কদম ফুল করেছ দান
Badolo dinero prothomo kodomo phul (audio: Arghya Sen)

You offered me your first yield,
The fragrant Kadamba of monsoon
For my part,  I bring you
My rainy tunes.

I have shielded them
With cool shadows, dim skies,
Treasuring
My first lyrical fruition

I know today offers you abounding harvest
But tomorrow will leave you bare

And so each monsoon,
My songs will come to life,
My boat will be heaped with your honour
My melodies, echo your glory
Riding on tides
Of your lost remembrance

The night hums with endless rain

আজি বরিষনমুখরিত শ্রাবণরাতি
Aji borishono-mukhorito Sraabono raati (audio: Srikanta Acharya)

The night hums with endless rain,
I attach my aching memories
In one evocative garland,
Through the lonesome dark

I delude myself
Into keeping the door ajar,
Into imagining a friend arrive
To share my somber night

A heart who will mold music
From monsoon showers,
A soul that can enamor
Savory Kadamba buds

The muse who will perhaps,
Never show up --
For whom I embed
My yearnings on the soil
With patient contemplation

Pressing hours of high monsoon

যায় দিন শ্রাবণদিন যায়
Jaay din Sraabon din jaay (audio)

Pressing hours of high monsoon
Cloud my heart,
Whisper the emptiness
Of my bizarre longing,
Piqued by an enchanting dusk

A solitary night is imminent.
My lamp flickers,
With promise, questions,
The void vibrates with ambivalence.
There are no answers,
Only a wild wind
Embarks homeless on the pathway

The opaque dark has stifled my dreams.
But the night, wounded with heartbreak,
Hunts for expression, eloquence
Through the rustling music of rain,
The sodden fragrance of Malati.

The monsoon night culminates

আজি বর্ষারাতের শেষে
Aji borsha raater sheshe (audio: Debabrata Biswas)

The monsoon night
Culminates in a sparkling dawn
Sodden clouds
Dissolve their smoky kohl
With softened sun-streaks,
Iridescence crown the bamboo,
Colors trickle, ubiquitously.

The grass glistens, rustles,
Reverberating my vibes,
My vibrations.

I sense the soil's love,
The symphony of light.
I feel my blood rush with delight
My heart harmonize,
Laugh out, with the wilderness.

I splay my heart in the monsoon sky

নিবিড় মেঘের ছায়ায় মন দিয়েছি মেলে
Nibiro meghero chhayay mono diyechhi mele (audio)

I splay my heart in the monsoon sky
Beneath a clouded, opaque dimness.
I wonder if you sense my message
In your dreams,
Across a thousand seas

Waves lap with longing
Transporting the blues
From south, faraway rivers

A memory,
Merging the music of darkness,
Hovers along the path
Of irretrievable stars

My wakeful, aching eyes
Keep peering through a fruitless void,
An eternal emptiness

Beyond boundless monsoon

শ্রাবণবরিষন পার হয়ে কী বাণী আসে ওই রয়ে রয়ে
Sraabon borishon paar hoye kee banee (audio: Mita Huq)

Beyond boundless monsoon,
Undying rains,
A mysterious missive heaves in,
Misted with the secret spice of Ketaki,
Exuding the heartiness of Bokul,
Breathing an ancient lover's
Deathless tears of longing

A missive, that delves into the poet's heart
Amassing music to match it's hurt

A message whispered to a love
Lost in endless separation
Conveyed, softly, stealthily,
Through rain-melodies of Malhar
Like a momentous cloud messenger.

In my quest of a song

আমি কী গান গাব যে ভেবে না পাই
Ami ki gaan gaabo je bhebe na paai (audio: Sagar Sen)

In my quest of a song
I delve into the sullen sky,
The monsoon breeze
Replete with longing.

There is a passionate eloquence,
A dancing gig, strange, mysterious,
Among the trees blowing in the wind,
Which I yearn to learn, 
Spend hours to assimilate

My body responds to a
Wave of unearthly melodies, 
Deluging me
In streams of splendor

A secret thrives in the chasm
Of my shadowed consciousness,
In the twilight haze of my dreams,
Which I pine to possess
Very deeply.

Submerged in high monsoon

আজি শ্রাবণঘনগহন মোহে
Aji sraabonghonogohon mohe (audio: Debabrata Biswas)

Submerged in high monsoon,
in an opaque darkness
you arrived, as clandestine,
as secretive and soundless
as the sleeping night.

The dawn has shut her eyes
the wind calls out in vain
the brazen blue of the sky
has been dimmed.

Birds in the wilderness are speechless,
gates have been latched,
roads are unoccupied
but for you, lone traveler.

I keep my door ajar for you,
my friend, my love,
do not hover away from me
like a lost dream,
do not deal me with apathy.

Awash with monsoon vibes

এই শ্রাবণ-বেলা বাদল-ঝরা যূথীবনের গন্ধে ভরা
Ei sraabono bela baadolo jhora (audio: Subinoy Roy)

Awash with monsoon vibes,
Eternal rains,
The prolific fragrance of jasmine
A mystic image from antiquity sets in,
A lover yearning for her tryst
In the shadowed downpour

And I, deluged with longing
Hold my gaze to a solitary hearth,
Expecting a secret muse
At my doorstep
In the dark, in the drizzling twilight,
Singing a heart-sifting melody

(another version by Rumela)

This rain-soaked monsoon day
Filled with the fragrance of juthi flowers
She roves the dense woods, nook to nook
Wearing a veil of shadows
I seem to know her from a time forgotten
She who pines, estranged from her beloved

Why do I stare at the desolate road
What if she comes all of a sudden to my door
In the darkness of the clouded evening
She sings a song so heart-overwhelming

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

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

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.

My verdant shadow

শ্যামল ছায়া, নাইবা গেলে
Shyamolo chhaya nai ba gele

Do you have to leave at once,
                  My verdant shadow,
Are you finished offering up
                        Your last rain?
If days are short
Why not smilingly bid monsoon
An easy farewell
Why not indulge today
                   In an untimely game?

Your cast seems faded,
     But autumn will be here
          To relieve your shame 
With her golden touch
A new sun will beam,
Clouds orchestrate radiant melody,
Darkness and light come together
      And diffuse the sky 
                   In unsurpassed harmony.

On the vast canvas of the sky

গগনে গগনে আপনার মনে
Gogone gogone apnar mone

On the vast canvas of the sky
A game you play all by yourself
Donning many a garb you are
Ever so new in each moment

The sun you hide in your matted locks
To paint the hide-n-seek of shadows
How do I know what you try to say
Wrapped in melody of Megh Malhar

That raucous laughter in Baishakh
Heralding a summer tempest
Its deep rumbles have drifted far away
That streak of golden radiance
Has dissolved into the darkness
Why tarnished is your white raiment?
In misty clouds, covert shadows
What opulence have you hidden?