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Nay-Ballad
From uncoiled wings of the burning swan
after sea of blood was born out of green caterpillar
that skin sheared moon from cloud’s underbelly
ordered waves to abolish horoscopes on crabs’ breasts
.
On the evergreen epiglotis of lotus full to the brim
the pollen fiddling honey bee waved her double scarf
searched for drunk village of pride red beating crowd
humming songs sleeping side by side of worried distance
.
( Translation of ‘Na-Ballad’. Written on 15 August 1999 )
A Quasi Governmental Report
Unarmed military offered prayers
One tin water is for ten rupees
.
Underground river cut off from source
Habitually disgusted because of envy
.
Strong words used for sealing border
Public Works Department has broken
.
Since at the day’s end in share market
A woman’s body cut in two with sickle
.
Postal ballot in hand amid tomato field
Lying pristine with great expectations
.
Ambitious pair of shoes for parliament
Let them say whatever face betray
.
As if rice field is scared of Tiger’s roar
Daughter of cultivator is in ministry
.
Tired cuckoo-man grieving due to son’s death
From football field corner in direct shot
.
Solved the problem of freedom movement
On the forehead of dead that was the truth
.
( Translation of ‘Ekti Adha-Sarkari Protibedan’. Written in 1996 )
Sonpur Fair, Evening of Gumrahi Tart
Sliding jute curtain
flickers in tent lantern
dot beauty gait her
small coins in betel box
was counting tobacco scent
in broken wine glasses
.
half naked on rope cot
coin colour country liquor
leather shoes well oiled
beat stick resting at corner
and yellow stain turban
cheese-penis landlord
.
atoned in elephant shit
put red petticoat on shoulder
switched song amplifier
hemp torn milk wet
eye on eye sharp dark
depends on who is beneath
.
myrobalan under tongue
betel nut cutter in waist
box full of scent tobacco
corset on blown breast
strung undies on string
one suck tumbling tart
.
artificial hair on bamboo pole
hypnotized hornet-man
mosquito on naked bum
his thighs are of mafioso
one and five coins for police
she is whatever fair or pure
.
( Translation of ‘Shonpur Mela, Gumrahi Baier Sandhya’ L
Ruffian
I who am a swapping lapwing’s bullet ridden sky
was born out of drowned water filled bison’s horn
in idle-eye noon beneath the pearly neem tree
was enjoying black blonde’s adornment of soft-paw brows
in rain drenched gold-flower tucked in coiffure’s knot
.
I who am standing in front of grilled horizon of meadow-dawn
on the trampled foot-printed grass of mourning sun’s wet-earth
heard nightlong wood mite’s buzz in my last wallowed bed
thought why should purposefulness be bad my dear
is not there art of sweat-salt in labour of post a chair holds
.
I who asked gallinules what taste do you get from wings of butterflies
like chipko playing bride of thrice-wed groom’s hoof-sound headgear
am in a ship evading lighthouse’s beam a saw-teeth shark
in the Secretariat cage-lift with a clerk having breasts of Jamini Roy painting
bawled shrieks of rider throwing stallion’s bridle snapping neigh
.
I who am a whispering song sung in cricket’s musical notation
have trapped Hilsa fish shoals’ colours in vagina shaped nets
beneath the fig tree of hanged martyrs during freedom movement
from corners of caterpillar-chewed perfumed lemon leaves
flying out in sky from nape shaved hillock of stone chip proprietor
( Translation of ‘Tapori’. Written on March 1, 1990 )
Crematorium, 1992
During a paddy husk flying noon, from the corpse of a white-owl, gnat children
were stealing butter
with their hands having fragrance of rice crispies
picked up lightly the throttled shrieks of last akanda flowers
in the brittle breeze of Jaisalmer
sickly happy
at the spiraling city, blood drenched minute hand of wall clock
and the faces were beaming in wood fire warmth
pigeons fluttered making sounds of torn documents, just a bit
of living one’s own life
from those colours of sunset eyebrows, on the sad boat at web-tide
dead body wrapped in coarse mattress
I walked towards the gold rimmed estuary
in my palm I held the split moment of a knotted storm
at the breast beating grief of thrown parched rice
that was only mine
The Clapper
Then set out after repeated warning the grizzly
Afghan Duryodhan
in blazing sun
removed sandal-wood blooded stone-attired guards
spearing gloom brought out a substitute of dawn
crude hell’s profuse experience
Huh
a night-waken drug addict beside head of feeble earth
from the cruciform The Clapper could not descend due to lockdown
wet-eyed babies were smiling
.
in a bouquet of darkness in forced dreams
The Clapper wept when learnt about red-linen boat’s drowned passengers
in famished yellow winter
white lilies bloomed in hot coal tar
when in chiseled breeze
nickel glazed seed-kernel
moss layered skull which had moon on its shoulder scolded whole night
non-weeping male praying mantis in grass
bronze muscled he-men of Barbadoz
pressed their fevered forehead on her furry navel
.
in comb-flowing rain
floated on frowning waves
diesel sheet shadow whipped oceans
all wings had been removed from the sky
funeral procession of newspaperman’s freshly printed dawn
lifelong jailed convict’s eye in the keyhole
outside
in autumnal rice pounding pink ankle
Lalung ladies
echo forgets to shriek back sensing the beauty of sweat’s fragrance
.
thereafter
Operation Bullshit
ulcer in mouth
numb-penis young rebel’s howl on the martyr platform
non-veg heart daubed in onion paste
black eyed flowers
drenched lotus flower suffered from pneumonia
cloud’s forced roar on a hookah smoking octogenarian train
and lightning covered with gold laced spider web
frog-maid dropped a fat toad from her back
.
creamy hell-fairy of Babylon
fed medicine tablets to north facing clouds
swirling green fireflies on castor-oil lamp
splints of songs from the crown of ruffled hair comet-face princess
swan with blood-stained feet
prayed for a spring season for the repatriated armies
who arranged green-bed farmland for the shot-dead rebel’s parents
sulphur mist spread through secret savanna of lion-skin poachers
marriageable horseman The Clapper
Heigh ho
.
suffering from angst of a little unrecognition
the garden which lifted the betel-nut palms on little finger
in long distance cyclone
below the lamppost
covered by clothes of rain
that broken gait is his form
the profile which searched for relaxing waves
the universe in tandava trance
mouth blocked with leucoplast tape inside a temple
The Clapper
.
when fire separates from smoke
within that flash
the epiglotis
feels bitter between two heart beats
feverish rebels invade through sluice-gate
palash flowers united themselves in blooming red during the cyclone
just like futureless in zoos
in the last breeze
tin-bordered clouds exploded firecrackers
as if The Clapper will appear just now
.
in the morning the sweeper gathered all clappers assembled during night
in painless love
shoved sick Ganges river in a bag
one or three colour flapping rainbow
food plates were found in graves
bone columns fell due to wails of exploiteds
nobody is happy
when asked how are you replied
fine
handed over rings of barbed wire from their waist
.
after the oath ceremony of depraved
corpse collectors started visiting towns and villages
people prayed for their right to cry
somewhere else The Clapper
in fractured health
was trying to correct the songs of birds
in star flickering darkness
pillow hugging rainy nights
fish smelling asthma of slippery catfishes in Palamou Jehanabad Rohtas districts
on the eyelids of snail-chin old woman gray dusts of salt-petre-sulpher
.
for listening to songs of small wide-eyed fishes of half rotten Hooghly river
winter’s fine moult came out of cobra-girl’s attire
suddenly a porcupine
kapok flowers in red wedding dress
young sunflower stared on the side
healthy crab danced in hot oil raising her two scarlet hands
white muslin soft fairies leaped in rice-bowl
after he wept in darkness The Clapper smiled in light
listened to the jingle of shackles with which he was tied to hospital bed
nightlong tick tock of incarceration of the table clock
.
( Translation of Bengali poem ‘Hattali’ )
Malay Roychoudhury's Poetry of Dissent Translated from Bengali to English. 