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.)

In the Fairground of Love

Where there is no violence, no condemnation, and no putrid smell of desire,
only the Lover prevails –
to that fairground of Love, let us go and see Him Who loves so deeply.

There He laughs and cries in Love,
drowning Himself in the emotion.

When met with a fellow lover of Love,
He talks with her fondly.

There runs a river
to the sound of monthly ebb and flow.

Forbidden to a greedy, lecherous soul.
The Lover swims in it.

So prays Saudamini:

I wasted my life in the land of desire
and could not reach the kingdom of Love.

I remained day-blind all along,
without knowing the path to the Lord.

(This is my translation of a Bengali Baul song, ‘যেথা নাই হিংসা নিন্দা কামের গন্ধ’, by Saudamini.)

Let Me Sit Beside You for a Moment

Let me sit beside you for a moment.
Let my tasks lie incomplete.
My heart knows no peace without a glimpse of you.
If I toil alone, I’ll be
at an endless sea.

Spring whispers joyfully into my window.
Idle bees buzz and float upon the garden ground.
Drowning in your eyes on a day like this,
I’ll sing of my devotion
in a restful sound.

(This is my translation of a Bengali song, ‘তুমি একটু কেবল বসতে দিয়ো কাছে’, by Rabindranath Tagore.)

this is love

if this ain't love
      
         what do you call this is
              
               darling! 

when you ain't home
      
       the sun boy wakes up late

the rain girl forgets 
        
         to water the plant

the bird neighbors quarrel all day
           
           munching the seeds 
                 
                 meant for 
         
           the desert relatives


if i ain't sad
         
      what am i
             
             darling!

time witch's wrapped my arm
      
    with a dull ribbon of age
              
             crinkling my skin
        
     brittling my bone
 turning my blood 
                 
                   into phlegm
     
the moist of my silly heart is
                      
                 gone and you
 

if this ain't for you
       
      who this is for
             
              darling!
  the strut of my heart
         
             the rise of my soul
                
                    the bile of my feeling of lone
                       
                            the glee
                 
                      of my orbital home
          
               this is love
              
                  this speck of
       
         you and me