Three Songs of Lalon

Subrata Augustine Gomes

 

The Bankrupt 

(Translation of “Gune Pore Sharli Dofa”)

 

As though in a spell, O wretched heart,

Your days are all spoiled.

You never came to find your gifts,

Fried your eggplant with borrowed oil.

 

All your studies were in vain

Seldom put into practice, and

You need milk or water, not words,

To soak your bran.

 

Your life that’s spent in carnal joys,

Will you get such a one again?

When they’ll shut down “dad’s hotel”

Who will give you shelter then?

 

Your palate, O heart, has not yet

Relished a sesame bun;

Lalon says, I’ve lived a king

In an alien land.

 

 

The One Unseen 

(Translation of “Ke Kotha Koy Re, Daekha Daey Na)

 

The one you hear, but don’t see— who is he?

The one that lingers at your fingers, yet,

When he’s sought, would forever flee?

 

I rummage the land and the sky

In his pursuit, but I do not know the “I”

Who searches, as if in a maze

Both the chaser and the chased

Have lost their minds and ways.

 

The one who’s Rama and Rahim in one,

Whose whereabouts— I kept enquiring on,

Neither earth nor water, air or fire

Would expose him to fulfil my desire

For idiots are always left alone.

 

Oh, I never knew he was a next-door

Neighbour— and yet I hied off to Delhi and Lahore!

Siraj Sain sighs, “O Lalon, you are but

A duffer forever and evermore…”

 

 

The Gracious Moon 

(Translation of “Par Koro He Doyal-Chand Amare”) 

 

Carry me across the dark,

Gracious Moon, sail!

Forgive me my misdemeanors

In this earthly jail.

 

Your protégé, sinful and base,

If you rid not from disgrace

Evil-leveler, Savior-of-the-fallen

If I still called you, people would rail.

 

If you were not by his side

Regardless of how hard he tried

He would ruefully fail.

I call to you to brace my faith

Being so weak and frail.

 

On water and land, in every place

Across the three worlds, you are praised

By the righteous and the hale.

Not knowing all that, wretched Lalon

Follows the wrong-most trail.