Short Poems

720

No Prisoner be—
Where Liberty—
Himself—abide with Thee—

ব্যায়াম করিস তুই অবন্তিকা, নরম গোলাপি ম্যাটে শুয়ে, মিহিমিহি
বাজনায় বডি তোর মৃদঙ্গ তালের ঢঙে ফুল-অন উরুকে ফোলায়
পা দুটো ওপরে ওঠে, উলঙ্গ সাঁতারু, আয়নার পারা গুঁড়োগুঁড়ো
ভাসাস সঙ্গীতে ধোয়া উড়ন্ত বকের ডানা, কাকে দিবি বলে
কাঁচা মাটি মাখছিস আঁটো সাঁটো লোভনীয় পাছাকে দুলিয়ে ?

Now I understand!
When to remember me
She vowed,
She said she would forget me,
But kindly!

Now I saw the hearth ablaze,
Now I saw not fire nor smoke.
Now I saw the Pandava Mother,
Now she was but a potters' aunt

Now I saw a stream flowing;
Now neither bank nor bridge was seen.
Now I saw a bush in bloom;
Now neither rose nor thorn was seen.

No guile?
Nay, but so strangely
He moves among us. . Not this
Man but Barabbas! Release to us
Barabbas!

Listen . . .
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp’d, break from the trees
And fall.

Cities are so far away, humans live there.
The knot chokes at your throat, a gray
horror caresses your limbs. Who will freedom behold?
When, at last, will the grubs rise up?

If you are sulky, Nova Scotia,
We'll gladly let you float away
From out our Confederation;
You sicken us with sily agitation.
If any more our patience you do tax
We'll let you go to Halifax.

There is nothing to save, now all is lost,
but a tiny core of stillness in the heart
like the eye of a violet.