Beyond Land and Time

One Day I Shall Come Back

(Rupôshi Bāngla 16: Ābār Āshibo Firє)

Translated by Chidananda Das Gupta

One day I shall come back, come back to Bengal

To the bank of this river with the terraced rice field,

Perhaps not as a man, but in the shape of shālik

Perhaps as the crow of dawn descending on this season of

            new rice

Cradled by the fog gliding into the shade of this jackfruit

            tree;

Perhaps as a swan belonging to an adolescent girl,

Ankle bells round red feet,

Floating all day in water filled with the smell of grass;

I shall come back, called by Bengal’s rivers and fields,

To this green bank washed by the river’s water.

Perhaps you will see an owl flying in the evening breeze

Perhaps you will hear the owl on the cotton tree

Perhaps a child will throw fistfuls of puffed rice on the

            grassy courtyard

Perhaps a boy will ply a boat on the muddy waters of

            the Rupsa

With a torn white sail, as in the dark across the

            red cloud

The white cranes return; there will I be among them.