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By the field the mason had devised
The yellow house, with a mere slip of a courtyard
A brick walled boundary, latticed staircase
All these, the mason had devised.
How deeply he cared for the house
Kept it neat, as he would his face
That futile no one called it, or hideous
Nor a forum, meant for hollow conventions.
By the field the mason had devised
The yellow house, where billowing clouds had flocked
And where, besides, the latticed staircase swayed
Luckless fate, in trite pomposity locked.
Abruptly, on an eve, sending tremors down the street
He drove a car, and stopped southwards with panache
Like a plague, rushed the fun-watchers to greet
As he bought up all there was in cash.
Beyond social fringes the staircase
The mason never cared to replace.
[Translation of a Bengali poem by Shakti Chattopadhyay. The title of the poem was "holudbari" and it appeared in his collection "dhorme aachho jirafeo aachho" (You exist in religion, and in the giraffe as well). Published in the Bengali year 1372. According to the Western calendar, this should have been around September-October, 1965.]
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