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Bijit Sarkar Sep 2020
He has been wheeled
Into  the morgue.
Last night- just as the autumn moon
Gave way to the night
He chose to die.

She lay beside him – with the child
Wrapped in moonkist love and hope.
Still the past woke him up?
Maybe he was always awake.
And now is sleeping in the morgue.

Did he really want to sleep like this?
Like a crushed rat with blood frothing in its mouth?
Hidden in darkness
Not to wake up ever again?

He will never be awake again
Will never have to bear the huge pain of life
- Not ever.
Thus spoke the silence
When the moon set –
Through the window in the strange darkness outside,
Cascading down  a camel’s neck.

Still the owl keeps its vigil
And the old toad begs for a few more seconds
Hoping to see another warm dawn.

In the flowing darkness
With nets fighting the onslaught of the buzzing bugs
The fly takes off from a puddle of pus and blood – into the sun.
The bugs fly patterns of life in the sun.

The caressing sky
Wraps around the torn lives.
A grasshopper flutters to fight a cruel death
In the callous hands of a boy.
After the moonbeams faded,
You went to the dark tree to die
When you knew that lives live apart.

But didn’t the tree say no to you?
Didn’t the fireflies lit up the flowers?
Didn’t the old owl say  
“ Has the old moon melted away in the grey water ?
Wonderful ! Let’s hunt now for a rat’s cadaver.” ?
Didn’t the owl give you the huge tidings?
And yet you left this throbbing life,
With its smell of ripe corn in an autumn ./

Is he at peace in the silent morgue?
With a trace of pink froth
On his lips like a rat’s crushed cadaver?
Still know this
This dead one did not  loose
Out on a lady’s love.
Nor locked in conjugal bliss, time stood still as he
Wrung out all the ******
Pleasures of life.
He did not shiver in the cold in life
Like a *****.

So
He lies now in the morgue
On his back on the cold slab
Yes I know
Her loving heart, child , home – mean little.
Its not the riches and the success,
But some other strange desire
Play in our blood-
And makes us tired
- So tired.
And its so peaceful in the morgue
So he lies on his back on the cold marble slab.

Still I see every night
The blind old owl perched high on  a tree
Blinks and hoots “has the old moon melted yet in the grey water?
- Wonderful ! let us now hunt for a  rat’s cadaver.”
Ye old lady of life, you are still a wonder as ever?
I shall get old with thee – send the ancient moon into the depth of grey water.
And two of us together shall empty the life’s huge coffer.
This is translated from a bengali poet, Jibabananda Fash
Bijit Sarkar Feb 2019
Unknown to you
All my songs are for you.
Like a leaf in autumn wind
Will you curl up against me?
Will you give me a drowsy smile?
To take away the sharp edge off life.
Do you want to share
The droplets of love in me?
Will that bring you peace?
I shall fade away- but life eternal
Shall hold you onto the earth,
- All my songs are for you.
I am the green in the meadows
And the blue in the blue sky
The colours are wrung out of Nature
And paint our lives – What a wonder!
Its ethereal – not in the sky
Nor in the ocean.

I have walked on a starlit night
To find – how the heart beats in her
For a man – in the cosiest corner of her heart –
The stars look on in silence
- How the heart beats in her for a man.
The world around speaks
And becomes mute
The fire behind the eyes goes out
Even the stars die out
And new stars are born in new times
The ancient stars fade out
And new ones brighten.
My love for that woman is offered in the pulpit – and I am the priest.

I am the priest – the priest.
The cold from the dead stars
Seeps into me.
You stare at the vigilant star
With the passion of the burning sky – and
Took comfort in the certainty.

The lights and the fires die out –
The cycle of time
Turns the present into the past.
But still the cold from the dead stars
Did not seep into you.

The meadows and the sky
Of this throbbing world
Belongs to you.
You are pulsating with life
With the gift of death.

Your sky is warm, but
The stars fade out with the cold of faraway space
The hearts , like falling stars
Drop with the noise of dewdrops.
You are so full of life
And don’t know how it feels
When I float away – like a leaf before the autumn wind,
Will you curl up against me ?
Your mind drowsy with sleep?
Your life will loose its edge.

Did you want to feel
The dewdrops in my heart?
I shall be gone – but the endless
Life shall hold you to this world.
And all my songs are for you.


The ancient stars fade out
And new ones brighten.
My love for that maiden
Is offered in the pulpit – by me, the priest.

I am the priest – the priest
The cold from the dead stars
Seeps into me.
You stare at the vigilant star
With the passion of the burning sky
And took comfort in the certainty.

The lights, the fires die out
The cycle of time
Turns the present into the past.
Still the cold from the dead stars
Does not seep into you.

The meadow and the sky
Of this throbbing world
Belongs to you.
You are pulsating with life
And with the gift of death.

Your sky is warm, but
The stars scatter thin in the cold faraway space.
The hearts , like falling stars
Drop with the sound of a dewdrop.
You are so full of life
And don’t know how it feels.

When I float away like a leaf in the autumn wind
Will you curl up against me,
With your mind drowsy with sleep ?
Your life will loose its edge.

Did you want to feel
The dewdrops in my heart?
I will be gone – but the endless
Life shall hold you to this world.

All my songs are for you.
, translated from “Nirjan Shwakkhar ( Silent Signature) ” by Jibananda Das, a bengali poet from Calcutta. Popularly called "Rupashi Banglar Kabi'' (Poet of Beautiful Bengal),Das is probably the most read poet after Rabindranath Tagore and Nazrul Islam in Bangladesh and West Bengal.While not particularly recognized initially, today Das is acknowledged as one of the greatest poets in the Bengali language.

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