If I Could Be with a Good Man

If I could be with a good man,

I’d have found salvation.

Yet here I stand, unable to be —

It’s good to be with a good man,

But still, I couldn’t be.

If I could find such a man,

I’d have run away with him,

Mingling in his heavenly hues,

I’d have become vibrant and free.

But alas, I couldn’t be.

I chant the name of God,

Yet in truth, I’m lost in thievery.

Gazing at others’ women,

My lustful eyes refuse to blink —

I couldn’t be, couldn’t be.

Boron in gold

Melts the metal’s hardness.

The words of a good man soften the stone.

My heart of stone remains unmelted —

I couldn’t be.

Lalon says, “My heart, the hours slip away

While you pinch the beads of a rosary

Without chanting His name.

Why not wear the garland of heartfulness and chant?

For you couldn’t be, couldn’t be.”

(This is my translation of a Bengali song, “সাধুসঙ্গ ভালো সঙ্গ, সঙ্গ আমার হইলো কই?”, by Fakir Lalon Shah.)