Digging is hard work, especially if you're digging alone. The drop of sweat that, Originating from the hairline has trickled down the inevitability of your brow and now trembles upon the lash, Let it cloud your eye. No one is there to look at through the haze No hands disturbing the air, no feet pushing… Continue reading At the End of the Heart, There is Steel
In the dream, I am walking. The chain around my foot rattles like a hungry snake. Yet I am walking, floating... down the sleek black streets of my past as if there is no chain around my ankle. As if this rain-soaked evening is as fresh and untainted as the day its first memory was… Continue reading Look Elsewhere
If the gods were real, what would I ask of them? Riches, comforts, unencumbered health A home with white walls and a courtyard with trees A river to swim, a river to drown A meadow to walk without pain A release, from pain. If the gods were real, should I bow to them or accuse… Continue reading If the Gods were Real
For #EverydayTranslations Day 4, here's a translation of 'Gandar', a poem by the late and beloved Manindra Gupta.
#EverydayTranslations Day 2: A short poem by late Bangladeshi poet Shamsur Rahman.
#EverydayTranslations I don't make resolutions. Only because I tend to fail at promises I make to myself. But this new year, I decided to change that. So I made myself the promise that I'd translate and post something on this blog every day. For how long? This month, maybe. Maybe the whole year. Maybe just… Continue reading ‘Falsehood’: A Translation of ‘Mithye’ by Sankha Ghosh
Three poems by Ritam Sen in translation. All of them can be found in the 2016 volume "Tomar Nistabdhata" published by Tritiyo Porisar.
Till a while ago, whenever I looked down from a high ledge, I'd retreat, afraid of a fall. Now, I enjoy looking down from this abandoned balcony without rails, strewn with blood-red broken chairs. Down below another abandoned balcony comes into view. Shadows deepen in the woods, clouds rumble in the sky. And in the… Continue reading Raai, Awake 5: Translating Ritam Sen’s Jaago Raai
Call me quaint, but Radha is one of those metaphors that never fail to move me no matter how cliched. In a way, she is such a primal symbol of love; a love so pure and all-consuming even a god couldn't handle its weight and had to run away. Radha is what remains when we… Continue reading Amar Haat Bandhibi: A Translation
'Jaago Rai' was first published as a series in a Bangla poetry blog, and garnered quite a following. The poems were collected and published in 2013 as a little black chapbook illustrated by the poet himself and created by a little collective of madcap writers and artists who called themselves 'Houdinir Tnabu' (Houdini's magic tent).
In Other Words 