abani are you home

8/13/2019 Abani Are You Home

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Abani, are you home? Trans. Arunava Sinha

Bolted doors, the neighbourhood sleeps still

All I hear is the knocking of the night

Abani, are you home?

Here it rains all the year round

ike gra!ing herds the clouds here drift

These green blades of grass

ook askance as they choke my door

"y heart near#suffused $ith ache,

Is bound for far a$ay. I fall asleepTo hear the knocking of the night

Abani, are you home?


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That is not a very happy time Trans.Subrata Bhaumik

The body $obbles from head to toe% you see $alls inside $alls,

cornice inside cornice, and change of side$alks at midnight.

Time to go home% house inside house, leg inside leg,

chest inside chest,

and nothing else & 'a lot more things actually?(.

Hands up) *eep your hands up until you are

picked up by someone & the authorities. +ight then you see

black car inside black car, and yet a black hearse inside,

lined $indo$s, door, burial ground, and hear hisses of skeletons breath.

-hite ants feed on skeletons # life inside decay

and death inside life. Therefore, death is hidden in death.

And nothing else)

Hands up) *eep your hands up, until someone picks you up,

and thro$s you out of the car, but inside a different car,

$here someone is in eternal $ait & like a young banyan tree

clenching a little peel off a decrepit building,

some fateful stranger lurks behind

the leafs like a hardened bud

$ith spiders inviting noose in hand,

ready to adorn you $ith a $edding garland,and you are married at midnight

$hen the side$alks change,

the body $obbles from head to toe and you

see $all inside the $all, and cornice inside the cornice.

Imagine that the station moves $hile still stands the train,

t$inkling stars glo$ in the dark $hile dooms lights $ane .

Suppose that the shoes are $alking $hile the feet rest still,

the Heaven, the Hell, and everything start to mill.

Imagine that children carry coffins to the crematory in bliss

and the old enoys nuptial dance across lifes abyss.

Those are not very happy times, not moments of glee.

And right then, the body $obbles from head to toe,

there is $all inside $all in your perceptive sight,

cornice inside cornice, and side$alks change at midnight.

Time to go home/ house inside house,

leg inside leg, the $orld is in a scatter,

chest inside chest, and nothing else is the matter.


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I can but why should I go?Trans. 0ayanta "ahapatra

I think I should turn around and stand

So much black I have smeared $ith these t$o hands,

all these years)

I have never thought of you as you really are.

1o$ $hen I stand beside the pit at night.

The moon calls out/ 2ome)

1o$ $hen I stand dro$sy on the 3angas bank,

The $ood of the pyre calls/ 2ome)

I can go.

I can go any $ay I $ant to.

But $hy should I?

I shall plant a kiss on my childs face.

3o, I $ill.

But not no$.

I shall take you all along.

I $ill not go alone before my time.

abani are you home

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