Ruposhi Bangla – Borderless

Essay

Rakibul Hasan Khan explores death and darkness in Fakrul Alam’s translation of Jibanananda Das’s poetry. Click here to read.

***Ruposhi Bangla*** manuscript, the most popular of Jibananda Das’s poetry collections. Ruposhi Bangla was published posthumously in 1957. The cover of the book was designed by no less than Satyajit Ray, the renowned film director. Courtesy: Creative Commons

Poetry of Jibanananda Das translated by Fakrul Alam

Jibananada Das (1899-1954) was a Bengali writer, who now is named as one of the greats. In his lifetime, he wrote beautiful poetry, novels, essays and more. He believed: “Poetry and life are two different outpouring of the same thing; life as we usually conceive it contains what we normally accept as reality, but the spectacle of this incoherent and disorderly life can satisfy neither the poet’s talent nor the reader’s imagination … poetry does not contain a complete reconstruction of what we call reality; we have entered a new world.”

I will sleep

Having lived in the world’s pathways for a long, long time
I know many stressful, hidden tales of the heart now.
In forests, branches and leaves sway -- as if
Djinns and fairies conversing! On greying evenings
 I’ve seen on their bodies a drop or two of rain dripping down.
Like parched paddy will. White specks of dust soften in rainwater.
A faint scent suffuses farmlands. From frail bodies of gubur insects
Indistinct, melancholy sounds dip into the dark river water;

I’ve seen them all—have seen the river immerse in the sloping dark;
shapmashis fly away; In asuth tree nests, ravens flutter their wings
Incessantly, someone seems to be standing in the lonely, fog-filled field.
Farther off, one or two straw-roofed houses lie scattered.
Why do the frogs croak on in Nolkhagra forests? Can’t they not stop?
Freshly laid crow eggs slip and slide into the sheora bushes. 

(“Ghumiye Poribe Aami” or “I will sleep” from Ruposhi Bangla, first published in Daily Star, Bangladesh)

Aghrayan’s Wintry Wilderness

Saying, "I know you don't look for me anymore in this world these days"--
I ceased speaking. Aswatyha tree leaves lay strewn amidst the grass then--
Withered and disheveled. Wintry agrahyan has arrived in this world's forests.
And yet long, long ago, our minds had been chilled by hemonto's onset!

(Agrahayan and Hemonto are names of Bengali seasons)

Fakrul Alam is an academic, translator and writer from Bangladesh. He has translated works of Jibonananda Das and Rabindranath Tagore into English and is the recipient of Bangla Academy Literary Award (2012) for translation and SAARC Literary Award (2012).

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Translations of Jibananda Das’s poems

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