Categories
Contents

Borderless, May 2024

Painting by Sohana Manzoor

Editorial

Though I Sang in my Chains like the Sea… Click here to read

Translations

Three poems by Nazrul have been translated by Niaz Zaman from Bengali. Click here to read.

Projapoti (Butterfly) by Nazrul has been translated by Fakrul Alam from Bengali. Click here to read.

Human by Manzur Bismil has been translated by Fazal Baloch from Balochi. Click here to read.

Now, What I Can Do by Ihlwha Choi has been translated from Korean by the poet himself. Click here to read.

Chhora or Rhymes by Tagore has been translated from Bengali by Mitali Chakravarty. Click here to read.

Poetry

Click on the names to read the poems

Michael Burch, Kirpal Singh, Ryan Quinn Flanagan, Shamik Banerjee, Stuart McFarlane, Mary Tina Shamli Pillay, George Freek, Radhika Soni, Craig Kirchner, Tapas Sarkar, Stephen Philip Druce, Anjali Chauhan, Michael Lee Johnson, Milan Mondal, Rhys Hughes

Poets, Poetry & Rhys Hughes

In Dylan on Worm’s Head, Rhys Hughes describes a misadventure that the Welsh poet had while hiking as a tribute to him on Dylan Thomas Day. Click here to read.

Musings/Slices from Life

Hooked for Life and Beyond…

Ravi Shankar looks at the computer revolution in a light vein. Click here to read.

Sundays are Only for Some…

Snigdha Agrawal introduces us to the perspectives of a child of parents who iron clothes for the middle class in India. Click here to read.

Eternalising the Beauty of Balochistan

Munaj Gul gives an in memoriam for a photographer from Balochistan. Click here to read.

Musings of a Copywriter

In Is this a Dagger I See…?, Devraj Singh Kalsi gives a tongue-in-cheek account of a writer’s dilemma. Click here to read.

Notes from Japan

In A Golden Memory of Green Day in Japan, Suzanne Kamata tells us of a festival where she planted a tree in the presence of the Japanese royalty. Click here to read.

Essays

When the Feminist and the Revolutionary Met

Niaz Zaman writes of the feminist leanings of Nazrul’s poetry in context of Madam Roquiah, a contemporary of the poet. Click here to read.

Metaphorical Maladies

Satyarth Pandita looks into literature around maladies. Click here to read.

The Storied Past of Khiva

Gita Viswanath takes us to the heritage city in Uzbekistan. Click here to read.

Akbar Barakzai: A Timeless Poet

Hazaran Rahim Dad explores the universal poetry of Akbar Barakzai. Click here to read.

Stories

Don Quixote’s Paradise

Farouk Gulsara takes us through a dystopian adventure. Click here to read.

The Buyback

Devraj Singh Kalsi gives a tale of reconnecting with the past. Click here to read.

Pier Paolo’s Idyll

Paul Mirabile traces a story of a young boy in the outskirts of Rome. Click here to read.

Conversations

Ratnottama Sengupta in conversation with Sohini Roychowdhury, who tries to bridge cultures with dance. Click here to read.

A brief overview of Rajat Chaudhuri’s Spellcasters and a discussion with the author on his book. Click here to read.

Book Excerpts

An excerpt from Selected Essays: Kazi Nazrul Islam, translated by Radha Chakravarty from Bengali. Click here to read.

An excerpt from Aruna Chakravarti’s Jorsanko. Click here to read.

Book Reviews

Somdatta Mandal reviews Radha Chakravarty’s translation of Selected Essays: Kazi Nazrul Islam. Click here to read.

Malashri Lal reviews Lakshmi Kannan’s Nadistuti: Poems. Click here to read.

Ajanta Paul reviews Bitan Chakraborty’s The Blight and Seven Short Stories. Click here to read.

Bhaskar Parichha reviews Will Cockrell’s Everest, Inc. The Renegades and Rogues who Built an Industry at the Top of the World. Click here to read.

.

Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles

Click here to access Monalisa No Longer Smiles on Amazon International

Categories
Tagore Translations

Chhora or Rhymes by Rabindranath

‘Chhora or Rhymes’ was written by Rabindranath Tagore in 1941 in Santinketan at his home, Udayan. It was part of a collection called Chhora that was published in the same year.

Udayan (translates to sunrise) Tagore’s home in Santiniketan, where he wrote this poem.
     RHYMES

When idleness hovers
In twilight’s haunts,
A hard day’s work
Draws to a halt,
Scattered whimsies
Float in flocks.
I do not know why
The dream realm calls,
Leaving behind the
Chasms of the day —
Some are filled with sentiments,
Some, run astray —
The flow of these imaginings,
Lost in their own rhythm,
Revel as irrationally as
Crickets’ chirp in unison,
Or dragonflies gather in dusk
To flit spontaneously
Into a weak flame that
Flickers dimly.
In clear light, when I reflect
On those lines,
I wonder if they were written
Intoxicated with wines.
Externally, they seem
To have an obvious sense,
And yet, they seem to conceal
mysteries that are dense.
Thoughts seem to stream, flow,
And drown —
Yet, they do not reveal
From where they come.
They exist I know but the rest
Is obscured by darkness —
The game is on to tie one
With another in coherence.
Congruity gives meaning.
But they break these constraints,
And in an ecstatic frenzy,
Dance in emptiness, unrestrained.

This poem has been translated by Mitali Chakravarty with editorial input by Sohana Manzoor 

.

PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL

Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles

Click here to access Monalisa No Longer Smiles on Kindle Amazon International