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

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.

 

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

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

A man is running at his breath
Crossing the broken bridge
With the anxiety intoxicated with reasoning
Maybe in blind emotion, his body is filled with sweat