The supreme soul
পরমাত্মা (Bengali)
আমার দেহ যখন হবে শব
ঘুচবে সব শব্দ, কলরব,
না-বলা ব্যথার আর্তনাদ যত
মন-যন্ত্রের যন্ত্রনা আর খত
অসাড় হয়ে পুড়ে যখন,
হাঁড়ির ভিতর হাড়গুলো সব
নাড়ির সাথে থাকবে হয়ে ছাই
হে বন্ধু, তখন এসো আলো হয়ে
আমার অস্থি ভাসিয়ে দিতে,
আমায় সাথে নিয়ে যেতে
আমার প্রিয় পরমাত্মা ভাই।
The supreme soul
When my body becomes a cadaver
All wailing words will cease,
On fire,
Bones burning at ease,
Gray dusts accompanying
The naval in an earthen pot,
All unsaid pains of
The machine-mind will heal;
Then, my friend
Come unto me as light,
Immerse my ashes in the waters
And take me in your arms,
My ma, my guru, my baba
O my Supreme soul, Paramatma.
© supratik 2023
Views: 963
Oh my god! I thought this would go unnoticed; however, I didn’t want to take my English readers for granted, that they’d compare and question the authenticity of translation? I am so impressed, because this is not a very word to word translation, especially the concluding part; it therefore becomes a trans-creation rather than a translation. Now coming to the reason for digressions, it is more because of the syntactic differences, English being in SVO structure, as opposed to Bengali (or any oriental language) being in SOV structure. Besides, Paramatma rhymes with words such as ma (mother), baba (father); referring… Read more »
I never knew this! Goth, there’s so much to learn!!! Remarkable. I have the same feeling now, that of awe, when I came to know that in Spanish you also begin a sentence with punctuation marks, in French I is also used in lower case. Learning is so fascinating. Thank you. ☺