Translated from Bengali by Sayandeb Chowdhury

Painting by Debasish Saha

One Birth

For a long time we would

Not be seeing each other;
Then, one day, we shall meet,
And confer to each other how
For a long time we
Had not seen each other.

And just as it is, days will pass,

And so will the years,

Till one day, it would be known
Or maybe, it wouldn’t be

That
I and you
And

You and me,
Would never get to meet again.

To have Aged

These days I do not enjoy
Walking in the rain
Or, under the sun.

It has been really long

Since I raced with the breeze,
Or swam in Ajay for one full day.

The stormy skies, the unceasing river,
Days of rain, days of the sun –
Then, those games with the mist,
The frolic with the dark…
Those days of laughter, romp and play,

They are no more under my grip.

Mourning which, I cannot even
Wail and howl, bang my head, and cry
‘What have I come to’, ‘What has befallen me’,
For, I am well past that age too.

The Idlers

One day they came.
They chatted, they gabbed.
Poured hot tea on a saucer, and slurped,
Praised a few, slandered others.
Fussed about the precise sum
Of cash involved in Bofors, and
Argued about the clamour in Mohun Bagan.
In the end, they all came to agree
That the future of Amitabh Bachchan was bleak.

Then, they left.
Where to, who knows.

Behind them went
The whiff of the chatter,
The smoke of the tea,
Bofors and Bagan.

Behind them went
The days of rain,
The foggy mornings,
The sun of brimful afternoons.

They come and go.
Days come and go.