At midnight a fast steam engine
Stopped at the station blowing up black smoke
I heard soundless boarding and alighting passengers
At my known locality, relatives and friends

After passing a long way
We reached in a place
Where cunning sky plays hide and seek,
At one time there's light and darkness in the next

Entering my house, I saw it has been captured.
And somebody closed the main door.
Gateman called out- I am not permitted to enter the area.

What kind of love it is?
When you are out of my sight, my world gets lost
Heaps of clouds - like memories
Cover this enchanted Earth.

 

The girl was standing by the window- forlorn
Under the obscure darkness of moon-light
Did the girl smile? Flickers of lightening
Did flicker on her eyes!
    Then she was not beautiful.

The girl wept on a star-clad night
Under the incessant shower of rain
Her heart broke, crying in ignorant
Unconsciousness, did she look for someone?
Then she looked totally strange!

In the blazing Sun of Chaitra or Falgun
A few drops of salty sweat
Burned on her eyes and lips,
On her blood stream flickered the names of roses
Then she was not beautiful.

Before my eyes-
One afternoon, under the dying Sun
She tore red petals of roses with utter disgust
Angry, wild and with sheer self-conceit
    And only then, she became beautiful!



Chaitra: twelfth month of Bangla era; Falgun: eleventh month of Bangla era




Translated by: Siddique Mahmudur Rahman

Where you want to escape- Go.
How far could you go running?
There is a mighty river behind you
Full of sharks and alligators
In the banks, fierce animals and dense forest

A single utterance shivered your timidity
Your bashful lips quavered again and again
You spoke out- I love you.
Under the moonlight of Chaitra, your whole body