POEM CONTINUOUS- REINCARNATED EXPRESSIONS (TRANSLATED BY KIRITI SENGUPTA ) Poet Bibhas Roy Chowdhury is a poet of deep undercurrents. His poems wear a wardrobe that is attractively simple but they are highly metaphorical and contextually philosophical. The simplicity of his poems entices a reader to go and feel the tip of the iceberg that is floating over the dense verses. One can get in touch with their own layers of consciousness by reading his poems. I would like to quote one of his best poems that will take you to the sublime levels of poetic expressions and to the deepest inroads of the author poet. “Marks of fresh wounds you would transfer on the body of the trees, Some naked trees, God was gone for a shower then… You will experience ambiguous thirst but it is a game of modesty! This is but termites within the meditating heart Time continues to shed as dusts… Therefore, ye eternal wound, it is up to you If you consider this poetry or not, From my experiences I will declare Poems arrive like rumors inside the mind… Some certainly surface, the rest circulate” [ Here ‘wound’ for the poet is nothing but a fresh deep-cut of bleeding inspiration, poet says these inspirations should be growing, so symbolically he related that to ‘a naked (pure) tree’ under which the reader and the poet (God, creator) will enjoy the purity of a divine poetic shower’. Though the poet is in a passionate drive to express what he really felt, the modesty twined with social conditionings eats up the pure imagery like ‘termites(thoughts) within’ making it expressed a bit less than what is expected. Poet reminds us that these negative thoughts are useless and also he says that with time dust is gathering on the fresh poems. The world may call it as poetry or not but for the poet, his poems are like fast spreading rumors and only few will be able to take this in and majority will simply pass it on.] I would like to quote one more poem titled: “when will winter come” Hands, and some space beside You failed to reach beyond, did you? But a road leads to some destination. I wandered around One afternoon… Wandered, wandered and wandered around Now that it seems content, I say, Wait, let us first understand and estimate Hands were there, and nothing adjacent Even space can read and interpret [‘We always seek what is far and miserably fail to attain it and we all lack the sensitivity to feel what is very near before us. We even fail to enjoy our precious present moments because of our doubtful nature ...’ Isn’t it a wonderful way to present a poem in a metaphorical way? There are more wonderful things to quote here about Poet Bibhas Roy Chowdhury and his inner ponderings… but I leave that to the readers and critics to come up with their own perceptions reading though this English translation. ] To translate the work of a poet, first, you have to go beyond the person called ‘you’ to match with the frequencies of the author. One can imagine how difficult it is to capture and reflect such delicate flashes from the soul of a poet. In this sense ‘Translation is a real challenge; it demands you to be more matured’. My dear friend Kiriti has taken this challenge and he has shown his maturity, heights, and depth as a writer. I thank ‘Kiriti Sengupta’ for giving an opportunity to understand the work of one of the best Bengali poets through this commendable translation. Gopakumar Radhakrishnan, Founder & Managing Editor poiesisonline xpresspublications 15/7/2014
Posted on: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 12:07:34 +0000
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