book excerptise:   a book unexamined is wasting trees

a mermaid in a stream of moonlight

Namita Chaudhuri

Chaudhuri, Namita;

a mermaid in a stream of moonlight

Nandimukh Samsad, Kolkata, 2011 [gift NC 2011-dec]

topics: |  poetry | bengali | translation |


includes many earlier translations, several by myself. 

Excerpts

Unobligatory words p.24

		tr. Mihir Chakraborty

I left one of my hands
	at Rahul's home
and one of my eyes at Monimoy's
in the streets some people enquired
	about my hand
and some others about my eye
but I marked with wonder
nobody asked about my eye and hand together

Nowadays it occurs to me quite often
if I left some more
unobligatory limbs of mine somewhere
how much would that matter. 


That path gloomy in the mist p.25

		tr. Mihir Chakraborty

The black dingi boat is stuck in sand
prickly shrubs covered in mist
nobody around
stealthily one or two sparrows
come here and spread wings
	to have a bath in faint sunlight

Once upon a time
a girl with glittering face
passed by this route rowing a dingi
where is she now
does she know her path of return
no more is there a river
the bed strewn with stones and pebbles
	       		uncared
perhaps she is herself underneath the sand
another idol of sadness - 
within her lies the black dingi
		 her love
She is alone now
     alone
	in deep darkness


amitabha mukerjee (mukerjee [at-symbol] gmail) 2012 Jan 07