Love Poems

If I Were (Ami Jodi Hotam), by Jibanananda Das, translated from the Bengali by Dr. Masum Z. Hasan.

If I were a wild-drake
Wild-duck, if you were
Somewhere on the horizon on the bank of Jolsirhi river
By a paddy field
Amidst slander reed
Resting in a tranquil nest,

Then on this Phalgun night
Watching the moon rising at the backdrop of Jhau branches
We, leaving the scent of low-land water,
Would have floated ourselves in the silvery crop of the sky -
Your wing touching mine, my wing feeling your blood beat -
Blue sky studded with numerous stars like the golden flowers of Khoi field,
In the green thick nest of Shirees forest
Like the golden egg
Phalgun moon |

Perchance the sound of a gun-fire:
Our sharp movement,
Pumping ecstasy in our wing,
We sing the song of northern wind |

Perchance the sound of a gun-fire again:
We are silent,
We are at peace |
Life's piecemeal death would not have been there;
Would not have been frustration and darkness of life's piecemeal desires;
If I were a wild-drake
Wild-duck, if you were 
Somewhere on the horizon on the bank of Jolsirhi river
By a paddy field |