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.)

The Way My Life Is

The way my life is, it will remain the same way. In hardship
and in ease; in conflict and sway
to the everyday rhythm. Greeting all on my path —
How dear they will be to me, and to them I will be so dear.

Every moment will go like this: a life hued
with joy and sorrow. In the playground of a colourful world,
where He frolics with us all —
He, Who will be dear to me. And to Him, I will be so dear.

(This is my translation of a Bengali song, ‘জীবন আমার চলছে যেমন তেমনি ভাবে’, by Rabindranath Tagore.)

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.)

Let It Fall Like the Shravan Rain

Let your music fall against my face
like the Shravan rain.
On my chest, in my eyes.
With the morning light,
and through the darkness of the night,
let it fall on my everyday pain and happiness.
Let it fall, let it fall like the Shravan rain.

How you revive a fruitless, flowerless branch
with the monsoon breeze; revive me
so with your music. Let it seep through
my wretched-wrought,
lifeless self. On life’s unending thirst, hunger,
unceasingly;
let it fall, let it fall like the Shravan rain.

(This is my translation of a Bengali song, ‘শ্রাবণের ধারার মতো পড়ুক ঝরে’, by Rabindranath Tagore)

Suspicious Woman!

She saw through me ( suspicious woman! )
She saw too far -
She did not stop till
Pain becomes her.

Day : I win my kudos,
Night : I lose -
’Cause she ( suspicious woman! )
Can’t share her blues.

It’s now so impossible
To tell her so,
Pain ebbs ( suspicious woman! )
As love grows.

So be it ( suspicious woman! )
So we live -
If mind flounders,
Please forgive.

Note : I wrote the words in 2004. I have been writing the chord progression since. 10 years went by. It’s time, I offer someone money ( USD100, at least ) to make it a song.