কবরমন্চ

কবরমন্চ

একটা শক্ত সিমেন্টের কবর আমার বাগানে ৷ আমি সেটা খুঁড়ছি আমাকে মাটির থেকে বার করব ব’লে ৷ কেউ কোথাও নেই ৷ আমি জানি মাটির নীচে আমি চাপা প’ড়ে আছি ৷ বিরাট বড় একটা হাতুড়ী দিয়ে আমি কাজ শুরু করলাম ৷ হাতূড়ীর সাথে একটা স্পন্জ লাগান আছে, তাই শব্দ হ’চ্ছে না, কাজেই আমার কারচুপি ধরা পড়ছে না ৷ এই হাতুড়ীটা আমার চেনা, ছোটবেলা থেকে এটা দিয়ে আমার ভিতরে অনেক কথা, অনেক তথ্য ঢোকান হ’য়েছিল শব্দ ক’রে দিনে দুপূরে ডাকাতি করার মত ৷ 

আমার শরীর এখন ঘর্মাক্ত ৷ কিন্তু আমি কিছুই ভাঙ্গতে পারছি না ৷ ঠঙ্গ ঠঙ্গ আওয়াজ হ’চ্ছে না, তাই বোধহয় কাজ হ’চ্ছে না ৷ নাঃ, একটু জিরিয়ে নিতে হবে এখন ৷ জল খেতে খেতে আমার নামটা পড়লাম, জন্ম, মৃত্যু কবে তাও পড়লাম ৷ এ বিশাল কাজ কখন শেষ হবে জানিনা! আবার ঠোকা শুরু ৷ 

অনেকক্ষণই কাটল এইভাবে ৷ ইতিমধ্যে আমার ঘাম ঝরতে ঝরতে আমার কবরের নীচে গিয়ে জমা হ’চ্ছে দেখলাম, আর সেখানে একটা কুলকুল আওয়াজ শুনতে পেলাম ৷ হাতুড়ীটা যত্নভরে শুইয়ে রেখে ঐ আওয়াজটার কাছে গিয়ে দেখি ঐ ঘামজল জ’মে একটা হাতুড়ীর আকার নিয়েছে, কিন্তু এই হাতুড়ীটা খুব নরম ৷ আমার কবরে উঠে পড়লাম, পা ফেলতেই তবলার আওয়াজ এল ৷ ও হোঃ, এবার বুঝেছি, এটা সেই তবলার হাতুড়ী, কিন্তু এত নরম একে তুলিই বা কি ক’রে, আর তুলে করবই বা কী, এ দিয়ে ত অত শক্ত কবর খোড়া যাবেনা, তা হ’লে উপায় ?

তা তুলতে ত হবেই, তাই নীচু হ’য়ে দুহাত দিয়ে যতই তুলতে যাই, ও ততই পিছলে যায়, ফসকে যায় ৷ আমি সিসিফাস নই, আমাকে কেউ শাপ দেয়নি, আমি নিজের কর্মেই আজ আমার কবরের ওপর দাঁড়িয়ে, কাজেই ঐ জল হাতুড়ী আমাকে তুলতে হবেই ৷ অজস্রবার চেষ্টা করলাম ৷ চোখের জল বেরোতে লাগল, আমি নীচু হ’য়ে, আবার দুহাত জোড় ক’রে তুললাম হাতুড়ীটা ! আর যেই আমি উঠে দাঁড়ালাম, আমার কবর আপনাআপনিই তরল হ’তে লাগল, আমার মন্চ গলে গিয়ে আমায় নীচে নিয়ে যেতে লাগল, আমার হাতে তখনও জল হাতুড়ীটা রয়েছে দেখলাম ! আমার কঙ্কালে পা ঠেকল, আর আমি আবার নীচু হ’য়ে ঐ হাতুড়ীটা কঙ্কালের গায় ছড়িয়ে আমার নাটক শেষ ক’রে উঠলাম ৷ 

Just a moment

Come not so close, so I can see you.

The room to be, in the air entre

The light to sense the darkness too,

While balance clears the lenses clean.

Be not so far from Where You Are,

Let's sit under the Silver Star,

To think we started a while ago,

To write a story That burnt to know.

Doubt and faith; fear and love; can not cook.

The races Knew our stomach and head.

Life exiled from our tired look,

While death is still to carry the dead.

Yet it's just the Saami of us,

Who Talked of yes on the moving bus,

Are looking now to change the car;

Windows closed with doors ajar.

Speak of song, talk of dance

far from life, and so remote

Stay for good give it a chance

not to close in Such instant.

Tout le monde

C'est une machine

qui te provoque, t'influence

C'est un pouvoir méchant

qui te commande, et brise ta cadence.

C'est un pistolet qui te fait mal

Un cadavre qui ne ni pense, ni aime

Tu le suis en amont ou en aval

Même si tu te gènes toi-même.

La machine je te tue ici

Le pouvoir, je te nie

Je retire avec soin les belles âmes

Les hommes et les femmes

Le pistolet je te fais sortir

Le cadavre, je te sépare encore

pour te faire ré-unir.

English translation

Everybody

It’s a machine

It provokes, influences you

It’s a cunning power

Which entices you, makes you cower.

It’s a gun that hurts you

A carcass which neither thinks nor loves

You follow it nonetheless

Even if it overwhelms and benumbs.

A robot I kill you here

Your power I deny everywhere

I take out the beautiful souls with care

I open fire on you, you brute

Cadaver, I separate you

From me, and totally uproot.

I first wrote the poem in French in 2012. Translated it into English on 1st of January 2017 following some good response in various other ezines.

Dialogue

If I'm alone
I Remain in my thoughts,
Out of Touch That made me evil,
Was always teasing me.

I walk in the rain,
in the storm, sunlight
Open ear Purpose
I am no worries, no shelter.

I taste my loneliness
Every day I eat,
This is my outfit, a dress
Nothing bothers me.

I dialogue with my pages
I speak with words
My world, neither true nor false, it
Leads to meler my pictures.

A la recherche d'un droit

I want a small space,
where can I stay
carefree, without grimace,
my mouse only to show ...

From the garden to the library,
my right gets rid
from evening to morning, I space
in the office, at the pub, disco ...

to me, this is just outside
I live without reason;
the place from where ever I go,
it is a corner in me, my own house.

Unknown friend

On the bus was a lady seated beside me

Her skin was sinking soft I felt,
                                             didn't dare to see.

She was talking on her cell with someone off and on,

To whom, of what, I didn't want to know and hear,

My stop, I thought would better not be gone

With her voice so touching, skin so near.

I saw her from the corner of my eyes,

Her hair, falling at ease, on my conscious stiffened thighs

Her elbow, I saw, was placed inside, that touched my shirt

So pleased,

She looked outside, the time it seemed has got

Us ceased.

Sitting close, no one knows, and no one even talks

She’s cool, am sure has similar pleasing thoughts.

I was dignified, politely distanced, as far as I could be

To respect the space in which, she came so close to me.

Everyday our journey begins and so does it end,

On the bus we spend some time

With a silent unknown friend.

when

when my eyes meet your eyes
          they are gone          
when my thoughts unite with your thoughts
          a meaning is born      
when my form appears in your form
          words disappear                
when my world enters your world
           they surface                  
           without pride,                
           without fear.                  

Convoluted

managing the managed
is imaging the damaged
rigid through ages
deranged the sages
ragged through the edges
injured the pledges 
dragged those in rage
arranged those in danger
all gypsy genders... ... when
all of a sudden there's one little pigeon
hiding in an un-judged page
like a poem in a cage
flies over the bridges
cries to the change
time to manage who manage
merge the energy of the managed
with those who manage 

Out of sight

I don’t see the birds,

For me, the tree chirps.

The wind in the air I don’t see,

The garden dances in rhythm for me.

Don’t see the heats that drain

Those clouds for me give drops of rain.

I don’t see what makes me grow,

It’s there perhaps for me to know!

I don’t see the hidden birds,

For me, it is the Tree that chirps.

defeat

My life is dead; dull, dim monotonous in its repetition.

Every minute and hour spent, to second without option.

From the time I wake up to the time I sleep,

Rigorous, onerous routine takes me on its grip.

I talk and walk, eat and greet, work and rarely play,

Sameness orders justice, to an object of clay.

I see me dead, sung and read in what I do repeat

Life, like this is meaningless, with so much of defeat.

I look outside without pride to find a falling deed,

Seed which made the leaf in time, to free it back as another seed!

Days and nights, weeks and years, seasons come and go,

Flowers and fruits grow the roots without ever feeling low!

I looked at me deep inside, and heavens what I found,

Organs singing do, re, me without making a tired sound!

A voice within said to me, you've just made a proud defeat,

Life's alive pounding still because of what you always repeat.

Being

Lazy lake. Indolent ease.

Chirping birds. Busy breeze.

Serene sky. Grasses lie.

Soothing sound. Low or high.

Moving Moon. Stable Sun.

Begin and end. Work is done.

Beings all. Fall and rise.

Easy eyes. No surprise.

Normal

Ha…   Hanging hammer of a word,

That orders in its spree,

Neither forward, nor backward

Little awkward is the plea.

I choose to be my way,

Have skins by my side,

Huh! The word pumps away

The meaning it can’t hide.

Let the hearse fly or crawl,

Rehearsing many times,

But we’re off its wall

Not listen to its rhymes.

ha!

Our word in silence,

Has its own order too,

Has rules to sing of sense,
Is enorm to listen to!

Armed dream

I have an armed dream inside me 
To throw up as fruit, in the branch of a tree.  

There is a cloud, thick inside my heart 
Ready to rain when it knows the art.  

Drowned in the silence of bliss and rhyme
Choice afloats, sounds it is time.  

Silly things

"Oh dear God 
Help us to be good, 
In the games we play 
Or the work we do. 

Bless us everyone 
Singing here to Thee 
God whose name is love, 
Loving may we be." 



Used to sing this song in school 
With attention and devotion to their full. 
Now cannot sing it with grace. 
Every line seems so out of place. 
Doesn't matter what the poem sings 
Do not bother what the lines say, 
The tired world we see today, 
Has stopped to ponder on silly things.  

Color blind

Black sheep, black cat, painting you black, dark spot...
We violate you, more often than not,
Don’t cease to tease you black and blue without a clue
With images horrid that cloud and clot;
I wonder how the color which takes us in
Remained an outcast, yet peaceful and stable within.
At night when it’s dark when borders blend,
Mountains and rivers, rich and poor sleeping just the same;
You blind us so we cannot fight,
Wait until appears the light
To show our teeth and worth, without shame.

Gray areas, gray hair, we say it is so dull and dead
With the gray we have inside our head!
And the gray that flows through the hollow pipe,
Helps the living dead to come alive,
When they paint the clouds that reign delight
Gray is born out in the dawn,
Black unites with the perfect white.

The truth let’s get it a little straight,
Clearly we’re not so correct
Gray is life and unity
Black absolves, binds all – is peace, our destiny.

The beat of life

I was walking alone by the beach,

To go until where I didn’t know;

Took their steps my silent feet,

From the drowning, safe and stable sand;

The waves halted to a shouting screech.

On the barren land,

A goal in mind didn’t really grow,

The shell went on with a steady beat.

Going at ease with life like this,
It is it has to know the bliss.

গুপি বাঘা হতভাগা

গুপি বাঘা হতভাগা


গুপি বাঘা হতভাগা

বেসুরো, বেতালা তাই

গ্রামছাড়া হ’ল তারা

গাধা চ’ড়ে, টুপি প’ড়ে

অজানা, অদেখা দেশে

পাড়ি দিল গালি খেয়ে

গান বাজনার দোষে ৷

মিলে গেল তারা দুই

দুঃখের সাথি হ’য়ে

বোকা ব’লে সব্বাই

চুনকালি দিল মিছে

ঘুম চোখ নিয়ে তাই

খিদে পেটে শুতে গেল

খোলা আকাশের নীচে ৷

ভুত রাজা ব’লে গেল

‘তোরা বড় ভাল ছেলে’

তিন বর দিয়ে যাই ৷

বর তিন নিয়ে তোরা

বর্বর লোকেদের খুব ভালবাসবি

গান দিয়ে, তাল দিয়ে

সবাইকে নিয়ে তোরা

ভাল পথে চলবি ৷

এই বর পেয়ে তারা

কত মজা করল,

যুদ্ধের মাঠে তাই

গান, সুর, তাল নিয়ে

মারামারি থামল !

ওদের বরের গুণে

মন্ডা মিঠাই এনে

মিষ্টির বৃষ্টিতে

রাগিপেট ভরল ৷

বাঙালির মানি মন

মানিকের পর্দায়

এ হেন মেজিকে যেন

মন প্রাণ ভ’রে যায় ৷

ভাবি তাই এইবার

পর্দাটা তুলে যদি

গুপি বাঘা আসত,

যুদ্ধরা বোকা ব’নে

গানে, সুরে ভাসত ৷

চালাকির চালে আর

বিশ্ব ত চলেনা,

চল নারে বোকা হ’য়ে

এইটুকু বুঝে নেই

গুপি, বাঘা গেছে কই ?

নয় তারা ফেলনা

টুপি প’ড়ে গাধা চ’ড়ে

আমাদের সব্বার

বোকাছেলে দুটকেই

খুঁজে আনা দরকার ৷

মার সাথে ঘরে আয়

বেশীদিন নেই আর

প্রার্থনা করি মোরা

তালে, গানে, সুরে, তোরা

ভোরে ফেল দেশটা ৷

পূজোর ভোরেতে হবে

গুপি বাঘা হতভাগা

তোদেরই মনের মত

সরল, সুরেলা কাজ

শিখবার চেষ্টা ৷

Gupi and Bagha are two famous characters of the gupi-bagha series created by Satyajit Ray's grand-father Upendra Kishore in his novel Gupi Gayen Bagha Bayen. This was made into a series of film by Ray. According to the story, Gupi and Bagha are two good-for-nothings who were thrown out of their respective villages on a donkey. Punished because of their extreme bad performance in singing and in playing the drum. In the forest, they come in contact with each other. That night, they starved to sleep. In their dreams, they met the king of ghost with his troop, who gave them three boons. 1) They can sing (Gupi) and can play the drum (Bagha) without ever going out of tune, and the audience would go numb (stabdha) during their performance, 2) They can eat and wear anything, 3) They can go anywhere. All they needed to do was clap, but the condition was that one hand should be Gupi's and the other Bagha's (what interdependence!).
The king of ghost said he was giving them those boons because they were essentially good human beings. From then on, their life changed. They did many good things wherever they went. They were able to stop the war between two kings, who were twins but were separated from each other because they became victims of a ploy. Gupi and Bagha had stopped the war by raining sweets (monda mithai) right in the middle of the war. The soldiers, who were starving, ate to their hearts' content and became friends.
With this as the background, the poem imagines Gupi Bagha to appear as real characters, jump from the screen and come during this puja and transform the world. The poem asks for their forgiveness for having banished them because it feels that fools like them are now needed more than the so-called intelligent people. I am sorry I wasn't able to translate it. However, I am trying...the moment something sensible comes, will post.

Journey

I am in my prison, 
Cheated with reason, 
Bound by my thoughts, 
Clouded by thwarts. 
  
My body is amongst 
A myriad of seconds, 
Aping past moments, 
My soul is in angst. 
  
Off with the ism 
In me I see lights 
Raining delights 
Breaking free through the prism.

Question

Who has more power?

The one who takes or the one who gives has supports to shower

Who loves more?

The one who leaves or the one who lives the stage despite poor score

Who has more peace?

The one who talks of it or the one whose power to love

Has no condition to please?

Who is happier today?

The one who has more or the one who is at ease

Come what may.

In all the things we are looking in a person in this debate
Is perhaps the one who loves to love and hates to hate.

Outsider

We are so outside 
Looks, caste, gains on the whole 
While meaning escapes from the narrow hole 
What we have, how we feast 
Our own outsiders to say the least. 

Words

Words are us, not words alone 
The shades that shape the games they play 
Images print in the mind forlorn 
Garland or chain us every day. 

Words destroy, they also heal 
They are out to hit and harm 
Worlds we tend to so conceal 
Through words from us can also charm. 

Being

Yes I am breathing 
Yet always in my then 
Is it what's living 
Am I really sane? 

People and objects 
When they're all with me, 
My sleeping mind all rejects 
Until the time they flee! 

Days became months so fast and months became years 
My body is all so heavy now still the heart in tears 
If only I could leave aside, my then behind me 
I could breathe and live my now, I could just here be! 

A game winsome

Together we plan 
Together we can. 
To make us complete 
Let's not compete. 

Let's all dance and play 
See our sorrows disappear. 
Let's share and stay 
From far and near. 

Thank the world so kind 
Say, 'Thanks a ton'! 
It's all in the mind 
To win as one . 

Promise

I am here to mend, not end 
I am here to defend, not offend. 

I am here to work you see 
Only at my pace, 
Time means little to me 
What matters is my space. 

Don't believe in facts though 
I believe in bond 
Not here to react so 
Here to just respond. 

Hear me clear, I am here just to give and lend 
Safe and sound you see, 
Out of race, out of trend 
At peace and ease with me.

O sense

Sense O sense, you tire me 
As i so run out of breath 
If ever I'd have you free 
Will hang you until death. 

Ah noh! No, no...no, no 
Like you I don't kill and slay 
This is just to let you know 
Will never come your way.  

Laughing gun

This scientist you see 
Almost got a Nobel Prize 
She invented a laughing gun for free 
Took everyone by surprise... 
  
Carrying, she claims if you shoot the gun 
Everyone will laugh, love and only have fun 
She asks us to try, in neighbouring countries of the world, 
She is sure the gun, with an angry mob, would work. 
  
It has to be first approved by all clever men 
What a silly gun this is, before our wit and acumen! 
Counter-attacked the wise, try it must we should 
Let us see her craft if it’s of any good. 
If so much was invested inventing tear gun 
That had over the years, made people flee and cry. 
Why don’t we give this d*mn just a little try? 
Okayed was it for some willy-nilly fun. 
  
There’s running there a bitter angry mob 
She shot just once, that crafty little knob. 
Grounded and stunned to see what they saw 
It turned into a stage with everyone in awe! 
Their anger ran away they were laughing all in one 
The silenced audience saw the drama with the gun. 
All were shaking hands, the mob and the cop 
Happy were they all from the bottom to the top. 
  
Days passed. The lab where she invented the gun? 
No trace. No mark. All over, all were done. 
She was tried in court as the story goes. Fled and went on the run. 
Her tears kept rolling on and on, without a tear gun. 
  
Hush! She’s now not alone, is with her little child 
Trying laugh guns in the wind; are out in the wild. 

The Fox and the Crane

The Fox and the Crane were just simple friends 
One would run the other fly making to meet their ends. 
They ate to their taste made no haste to have their friends’ food, 
But one day they thought they’d change their tongue for bad or for good. 
Hey Crane, said the Fox, why don’t you come to my den, 
I’ll let you taste what I have, who knows you might try again! 
Gladly so gladly the Crane went to eat in his spot, 
Was touched to see the grub was served in an earthen pot. 
The Crane went on and blew along all its huge wings, 
No one knew with his voice too he dances and he sings! 
  
I ate all o my pal                                             with my tall sharp beak, 
I ate all so now the call                                   my joy is at its peak! 
We drool, drool, drool 
Our moves are so droll 
We sing and dance so cool 
To play and rock and roll 
Da da titi ra…dara ra titi                                we are wee happy 
Di di doodoo do …dooro didi di                     here to poop and pee! 
   
O what I ate and how I ate was all so very good, 
Now dear Fox you need to try a bit of what’s my food. 
  
Gladly the Fox went along to meet his dear mate, 
Tasty bit was now served in a huge plate. 
Happiness kept flowing out of stout wagging tail, 
On the ground he danced around with smile in every trail. 
He swept the food still kept on licking with his tongue, 
Wasn’t there a drop of grain nothing was unsung! 
  
I ate all o my pal                                              with my broad sharp teeth, 
I ate all so now the call                                    my joy is what I breathe! 
We drool, drool, drool 
Our moves are so droll 
We sing and dance so cool 
To play and rock and roll 
Da da titi ra…dara ra titi                                we are wee happy, 
Di di doodoo do …dooro didi di                     here to poop and pee! 
  
Crane my friend I loved the way you had the grub nicely brought, 
O dear fox I loved to eat the soup you served in that pot. 
We don’t eat and look alike, not same are our trends, 
Like us we unlike we’re too simple friends!