Beyond Land and Time

The Smell of Far Worlds

(Rupôshi Bānglā 43: Dur Prithibir Gôndhє)

Translated by Chidananda Das Gupta

Smells from far ends of the earth

Invade my Bengali mind tonight.

If one day death asks me

To lie down below unfamiliar grass

On some unknown planet,

That grass will fill my breath

With the scent of aniseed, like Bengal's very own;

As a young mother's breast melts into milk

In any country, clime,

Under the light of the furthest star

All ways are laden with peace of this kind

Of grass, eyes, soft hands, breasts.

Somewhere death will come to me,

Cover me with the gentle fragrance of grass

At dawn, or at night;

Or a bird at mid-afternoon

Will take me to its bosom,

Cover me like grass;

The night sky will blossom into blue stars

I don't know if the same stars shine in Bengal's skies

I know in their hearts there is peace

And in the body of the sky

They are as eyes, arms, breasts, grass.