Showers have arrived over the river
The water has risen in a tide
Like hopes one keeps concealed -- a few
Fireflies dim oft come to view
And switching off and on their glow
In bamboo groves they hide.
The mighty weight of the cloud filled sky
Is borne by the lightning’s pain
Naïve and inconsolable
It groans alone in vain.
Intangible, yet ferocious and false
The frothy waters’ uncertain calls
Fade away as mute destiny
Signals with a nod.
I came away and left you dear
In the custody of God.
A lamp sits staring as it burns
Inside a chamber small
Next to a trembling bosom it shows
A solitary arm reclining close
On a patched cloth sewn from memories torn
Soothing cool its call
The magic spell of remembrances
Hides the door in a mist
Springs right then a pointed sword --
Straight on to my fist.
Lost away in the days of yore
Migratory winds come back to lure
When dark nights full of fragrance
From the childhood arrive and trod
I came away and left my love
In the custody of God.
Betwixt the folds of the sails the future’s
Womb to the full expands.
The stifling pressure of a pending fate
Makes the ribs of the planks vibrate
The stern begins to rock in panic
With the restless fishes’ bands.
His longings’ helm the sailor holds
With determination grim
In currents full of fraud floats off
My corpse discarded skin.
Beneath the heart, a holocaust rears
As the pull of the oars dare mortal fears
The waves and the horizon end colliding
Drunken in discord.
I came away and left my life
In the custody of God.
In reverse stream now starts to flow
My prayers in the dark.
Inside a slumber endless blue
A pain holds tightly -- without a clue
To escape routes from the naïve deceit
Of a wakeful contrast stark.
Even so there stands a dwelling
Covered by creepers green
Upon its slip of a balcony still
The forefathers convene.
Let their whispers, supple and soft
Send raining down the cautions they brought
And a thousand blinding terrors and doubts
About all that’s strange and odd.
I came away and left you dear
In the custody of God.
Translation of a Bengali poem, Samarpan, by Buddhadev Bose. Original poem composed on 6-9 September, 1954. The poem appeared in the poet’s collection entitled A Darkness that Exceeds Light (je andhar alor odhik), published in May, 1958.
