SUCHETANA (JIBANANADA DAS)
Mrinal Sen
Someone requested this poem. I am posting the original bangla version.
Sayan or Khaleq may want to provide an English translation.
Mrinal Sen
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SUCHETANA
-JIBANANANDA DAS
Suchetana, tumi ek durotoro dwip
bikeler nakhkhotrer kachhe;
seikhane daruchini-bananir phake
nirjonota achhe |
ei prithibir ron rokto safolota
sotya; tobu shesh sotya noy |
Kolkata ekdin kallolini tilottama hobe;
tobuo tomar kachhe amar hridoy |
aajke onek rurho roudre ghure pran
prithibir manushke manusher moto
bhalobasa dite giye tobu,
dekhechhi amari hate hoyto nihoto
bhai bon bondhu porijan porhe achhe;
prithibir gobhir gobhittoro ashukh ekhon;
manush tobuo rini prithibir-i kachhe |
Keboli jahaj ese amader bondorer rode
dekhechhi fasal niye uponito hoy;
sei shosya agonon manusher shob;
shob theke utsarito swarner bisyoy
amader pita budhho confushiyoser moto amader pran
muk kore rakhe; tobu charidike rokto-klanto kajer ahowan |
Suchetana, ei pathe alo jwele - e pothei krommukti hobe;
se onek shotabdir monishir kaj;
e batash ki param surjokarojjal;-
pray toto dur bhalo manob-samaj
amader moto klanto klantihin nabiker hate
gore debo aaj noy, dher dur ontim probhate|
mati-prithibir tane manobjonmer ghore kokhon esechhi,
na elei bhalo hoto onubhob kore;
ese je gobhirtoro labh holo se sob bujhechhi
shishir shorir chuye somujjal bhore;
dekhechhi ja holo hobe manusher ja hobar noy-
shashshoto ratrir buke sokoli anonoto suryodoy |
sayan bhattacharyya
>
> Someone requested this poem. I am posting the original bangla version.
> Sayan or Khaleq may want to provide an English translation.
>
> Mrinal Sen
>
> ___________________________________________________________________________
Thanks to Mrinal for posting this. I hadn't read this poem for a
long time, and re-reading this poem, what I felt most was how
relevant this poem is to our times (I am speaking of the recent
cataclysmal events in our subcontinent). I don't have any means
of checking the date of this poem , but I think Jibanananda wrote
the poem in similar circumstances, certainly after the eventful
forties and after the bloodbath of the fratricidal Great Calcutta
Killings of 1946 had taken place.
Here is the translation that I made for this poem for the benefit
of our non-Bengali speaking friends. For ease of reading, I have
interspersed the English translations in between the Bengali verses.
I intend to post a detailed commentary on this poem and what it
means to me, at a future point, when I get some time.
-Sayan Bhattacharyya.
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>
> SUCHETANA
>
> -JIBANANANDA DAS
>
> Suchetana, tumi ek durotoro dwip
> bikeler nakhkhotrer kachhe;
> seikhane daruchini-bananir phake
> nirjonota achhe |
> ei prithibir ron rokto safolota
> sotya; tobu shesh sotya noy |
> Kolkata ekdin kallolini tilottama hobe;
> tobuo tomar kachhe amar hridoy |
You're a distant island, Suchetona,
near the afternoon star;
where among the sugarcanes, there's
solitude to be had.
The wars and bloody triumphs of this earth
are true; but the last word - they aren't.
Calcutta will be given swirling grace
one day, and you my heart.
>
> aajke onek rurho roudre ghure pran
> prithibir manushke manusher moto
> bhalobasa dite giye tobu,
> dekhechhi amari hate hoyto nihoto
> bhai bon bondhu porijan porhe achhe;
> prithibir gobhir gobhittoro ashukh ekhon;
> manush tobuo rini prithibir-i kachhe |
>
Today, walking in the harsh sun of noon
trying to give the people of the earth
love, I have found perhaps the dead
bodies of my brothers, sisters, friends
killed by my own hand.
The earth is very ill now - very ill.
Yet we are indebted to the earth.
> Keboli jahaj ese amader bondorer rode
> dekhechhi fasal niye uponito hoy;
> sei shosya agonon manusher shob;
> shob theke utsarito swarner bisyoy
> amader pita budhho confushiyoser moto amader pran
> muk kore rakhe; tobu charidike rokto-klanto kajer ahowan |
>
> Suchetana, ei pathe alo jwele - e pothei krommukti hobe;
> se onek shotabdir monishir kaj;
>
I have seen ships arriving ceaselessly
in our sunny port, grain-loaded.
That foodgrain was the bodies of countless men.
All the gold these corpses discharge
amaze us. We're dumbfounded
like our fathers the Buddha and Confucius.
But yet calls for work rise everywhere
from blood-tired men. Suchetona, this is the way
we must follow, this is the way to go.
But it will take centuries of time.
> e batash ki param surjokarojjal;-
> pray toto dur bhalo manob-samaj
> amader moto klanto klantihin nabiker hate
> gore debo aaj noy, dher dur ontim probhate|
>
> mati-prithibir tane manobjonmer ghore kokhon esechhi,
> na elei bhalo hoto onubhob kore;
> ese je gobhirtoro labh holo se sob bujhechhi
> shishir shorir chuye somujjal bhore;
> dekhechhi ja holo hobe manusher ja hobar noy-
> shashshoto ratrir buke sokoli anonoto suryodoy |
>
How sunny is this wind ;-
Almost as good a society of men
we shall build, we , tireless sailors,
we shall build, no not today, - some day.
In human-birth-trance we came some day - when? -
pulled by the pull of soil,earth, feeling,
maybe it were better not to come.
I know now it was wonderful we came
in this dawn of dewey luminous skies.
Seeing what has been , what is, and what won't be -
all, all is endless sunrise in the night.
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translated by Sayan Bhattacharyya from the Bengali.
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Sayan Bhattacharyya | Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.
Graduate student |
Artificial Intelligence Lab |
The University of Michigan |