Jibanananda Das


Birds

Eyes refuse sleep In night of Spring I lie in bed – How deep the night! From one side comes the ocean’s sound Skylight overhead In the sky the birds converse. And then, where do they vanish? Scent of their wings fills the air. Taste awakes in the body in this night of Spring The … Continue reading Birds ...more

Ceremoniously Installed

“Rather why not write a poem yourself – ” I said with a wan smile; the shadow-mass gave no reply; I gathered it is after all no poet – but a mounted narrator On manuscript, commentary, notepad, ink and pen Enthroned – no poet – unageing, undecaying Professor; Toothless – helpless mucus-drip from eyes; Pay … Continue reading Ceremoniously Installed ...more

Horse

We are not yet dead – images incessantly yet are born: Mohin’s horses graze in the wildernesses of autumn’s moonlight Stone Age horses as if – still desirous of grass they graze Upon the weird dynamo of this earth. Odour of the stable floats in in a crowd of night breeze; The shedding of sad … Continue reading Horse ...more

Blue

Sun-spangled dawn sky, midnight blue In infinite glory you disclose yourself repeatedly Beside the helpless city’s prison walls. Here licks dense smoke’s coil The furnace’s angry blaze here incessantly burns Bloody stones in desert’s fiery breath covered, Mirage-cloaked. The lives of a countless travellers Are snuffed searching interminably; find no clue of the path – … Continue reading Blue ...more

Night of the Wind

Night of a dense wind last night – night of a countless constellations: All night the wide wind has played in my mosquito-net. Mosquito-net has swelled sometimes like the belly of the monsoonic sea. Sometimes tearing from the bed Has wanted to fly in the direction of the constellations. Sometimes it seemed to me – … Continue reading Night of the Wind ...more

Night

Unscrewing the hydrant the leper licks up water Or that hydrant perhaps, was choked. Now midnight descends in a rush upon the city One motorcar, coughing like a donkey passes Shaking off restless petrol. Though ever vigilant, As though someone has horribly fallen into water. Three rickshaws running merge into the last gaslamp In a … Continue reading Night ...more

Road-Walking

As though holding some gesture in my mind alone from city’s road to road Much I have walked: much I have seen the correctness of moving trams and buses Then leaving the road they know peace and withdraw into their worlds of sleep. All night the gaslight knowing its duty burns in good conscience No … Continue reading Road-Walking ...more

Vulture

From field to field and field – throughout the afternoon in sky and sky of Asia Are grazing the vultures. Man sees market outpost settlement – soundless fields Of the vulture. Where extreme silence of the field is standing next to the sky As if another sky, – there the vultures descend once in succession … Continue reading Vulture ...more