Of Nature
He walks to the beat of the madal
Runs the whole field to the river's morning
Leaves sing silently
Flowers suddenly blossom near the new sun
The water said to the sea come with me
The sea spoke of the sky
The sky began to grow larger
Touched a mountain and became infinite
The koel bird found its song
A flock of parrots flew off in bunches
On the other side of the river
Many unknown voices float down from the sky
How do the sun and the light expand
The shadow of fathers, forefathers, ancestors
Touch the ground
Where were they where am I where will I go
Many more departures remain
The morning sunlight spreads its wings
Original title: “Prakritir”. First published in “Sundar” (2000). ”madal”: folk drum. Collected in “Bhando Bevando” (2002)
Translated from the Bangla by Subha Chakravorty–Dasgupta
Of Agriculture
So many seeds grew into plants
So much gold was reaped
The farmer’s daughters walk round the heaps of paddy
Making the shrill ‘uloo’ sound
The festival continues all morning
The dream of more anno
After that dry soil again
No seed no water
(“Krishir” [Of agriculture], Collected in Bhando Bebhando, 2001).
Stop you traveller
Stop you traveler
If you were born in Gourabanga
If you’ve heard padavali mangala
Panchali prasadi Madhu Rabindra
Stop for a moment
If you were born in the land of floods, drought and good
harvest
You’ll say language is all around you…
Language is simmering inside you
Bangla bhasha
Whenever you want to say my Bhasha
You’re losing voice hands and tongue
Stop, Traveller, stop for a moment
Say, hope is the mother tongue
(“Darao Pathik” [Stop you traveler], Collected in Gourabachan
Kathanbishwa 1993 [The Narrative World of the Goura Language])
Translated from the Bangla by Khondakar Ashraf Hossain
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