Kamal Chowdhury's Poems
Translated from the Bengali: Professor Fakrul Alam
THE TWO OF US
One born in darkness
The other in light
Each the other's shadow
Brothers extraordinary
One living in the underworld
The other in a palace
Beneath a divided moon
The two keep drifting away!
WINGS
Waking up at befogged dawn I dart towards morning
I beckon the sun with a cup of tea
As I sip
A shalik bird flies and lands in the dust.
Thinking of that shalik I invent
Some extraordinary wings.
Time for me to take off!
RIVERS DON'T DISAPPOINT
From the stream of time I asked for its flow
I'm not daunted by debris; rivers don't disappoint.
I drift while looking at fish eyes—
A fishing boat; I'm a downstream man.
Just because it's night time I'm not alone
I've composed a new tune this day
To make rivers, streams, canals and lakes overflow
Only people with oil lamps for company can go with the flow,
Please don't worry though—our rivers
Overflow with poems.