The Real Relative

by Kumud Biswas



The pumpkin is very proud The bamboo frame on which it grows Is its space ship Not even in absence of mind It looks at the earth beneath It considers the sun, the moon and the stars Its close relatives Like them it also lives in the sky It sighs looking high Its clumsy stalk has kept it bound to the earth Or else it could easily fly. When its stalk was cut it realized Its real relative was the earth And not the sun of the sky. Translation of the poem Jathartha Apon which opens the collection Kanika by Rabindranath Tagore. This collection is unique – all its poems are short and epigrammatic. And most of them are also humourous and didactic. The original poem is at http://www.rabindra-rachanabali.nltr.org/node/10334

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