কফি টেবিল

নিজের করা কিছু কবিতার ইংরিজি অনুবাদ। প্রথমে বাংলায় লেখা মূল কবিতাটি, তার পরে তার অনুবাদ। আমার পক্ষে খুবই দূরুহ ব্যাপার, কারণ আমি ইংরিজি সাহিত্যের ছাত্র ছিলাম না, আর আমার প্রাথমিক শিক্ষা হয়েছিলো মাতৃভাষা বাংলায়।   

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The scent   
(Translated by : Shankar Lahiri)

                                                   

and comes floating in the air   
a dark scent
tossing over a songline, a quiver 

flowers so defined,  fruits so intrinsic

the pink lines on palm,  the granules on lips  

 
the stars that dazzle    
dying stars in their pulsating phases
     
emerging colours mainly pink and black   
a splash of vivid green,  in brown & red   

and some deep blue in the core

the odour riding high    
reaching distant planes

traced  on easel  and  paintbrush
on the body of fruits 

in giant black strides   

the scent of a demolition.  

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Prehistoric

Translation: Shankar Lahiri

how would this morning be you’d told me sometime

in the afternoon I read those poems of Ashbery last night

went into deep sleep woke up quite early -sun yet to rise-

observed John was already up standing away from the centre

on its perimeter winter gradually descended on earth

like a serpent shedding its skin crawling away from light

its dark dungeon as the sharp lance of time pierced the day

with the stark scream of a child its forenoon and afternoon squeezed out

the sap in golden drops that slipped deep into the blue indigo abyss

with a sudden prehistoric turn that heightened my nausea I could see

him a shepherd who lost his way in the ethereal soprano of deep forest

you stood hypnotized a percussionist afraid to touch the flowers

as if you no more read poems your forlorn thoughts the rays

of light came pouring down from deep sky onto the sweaters the

earth adding colour to your lips frozen cold in cryogenic sun

the warmth of your somber chin the reddish cheek-bone reflecting

so much of sky the red earth of Keonjhar the forest hills and the

ore mines of Kharswan as you sat timeless within your circle of

strain waiting to rise one morning for some warmth perhaps you’d

already known all that I wrote to you we’ve been brought into the

same cave by the same geomagnetic pull living million miles apart.

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