Wednesday, December 2, 2009

The Duck

this is the translation of a poem by Joy Goswami, from his Sahitya Academy Award (2000) winning collection, পাগলী, তোমার সঙ্গে titled হাঁস.




Did u not know, serenity is in fact a season of rain?

Nobody did tell u, such a season he is

Who can throughout the year, soar across at his will

Soars across the sky

Today, it rains here a little, and tomorrow, the sky there is overcast

Accompanying that, blizzard and storms keep blowing

I close my eyes and I see, soon as it starts pouring

Kids all sprint towards the fields, and leaning by the mud-walls

And tubewells, the village women, whisltle out to their ducks,

From the gullies and the gutters: choi-choi, choi-choi,

Choi-choi…. in the Bengal of a century back,

A childhood friend of yours, used to whistle to you, choi-choi

And tease you, do you remember?

Today, in this life, u are the duck of a cold country, from seas unknown

to unknown seas u swim— across ocean after ocean

u soar away to distant lands….

But this time, even in this life,

Someone is calling out to you, by that hundred years old

Neak-name of yours, in complete silence is he calling you! Choi-choi,

Choi-choi, choi-choi, — and maybe u hear nothing,

Nothing at all, isn’t it?

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