The Sagacious Woody

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Behold! The old beardy hunches over his pot – He licks up, in broad daylight, his damp woods stewed hot! He shakes his head, keeps muttering hymns like a mage – From his ways, you would think he’s no less than a sage! Blabbers all day long – you’d wonder from where they stem – “The sky’s full of cobwebs, so woods have holes in them.” He raises his bald head and beads of sweat run down, “Nobody can fathom its gravity –” he’d frown, “These foolish dunderheads, to such matters purblind, Don’t seem to take in – always wrangling in their mind. Which wood has more essence – blind to facts such simple – Why on eleventh lunar days, woods get dimple.” Scribbled around all o’er, in fact, is his account Of cracked woods and notched woods – he loses not a count! Which hole tastes delicious, and which hole’s insipid, Which crack gives off fragrance, and which one smells horrid. Clunk! Clank! Clackety-rattle! He knocks wood with wood, And says, “I know which wood in what way gets subdued. Paying a
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Jollyfied

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Look we’re laughing, look at us – we laugh with jolly,
We bunch of three scrunch and laugh in toothless folly!
I laugh, laughs my elder bro, laughs too my younger.
None’s sure why we laugh, of laughing we have hunger.

 I wonder why I laugh, I’d rather stay without it –
But we – giggle with glee – just on thinking about it!
Feel like laughing when eyes are open or as I close,
Even if pinched, or when I stick a finger up my nose.

 Makes me laugh the crescent moon, weaver’s loom, oars of the boatman,
Boats, balloons, beetles, baboons, the trains or the oil can!
As we learn our A-B-C, soon we burst into laughter –
Our tummy fizzles like soda bubbles thereafter!
(Bengali original: Ahladi)
Translated by Arkajyoti Banerjee

আহ্লাদী 


 হাসছি মোরা হাসছি দেখ, হাসছি মোরা আহ্লাদী,
তিনজনেতে জট্‌লা করে ফোক্‌লা হাসির পাল্লা দি৷
হাসতে হাসতে আসছে দাদা আসছি আমি আসছে ভাই,
হাসছি কেন কেউ জানে না, পাচ্ছে হাসি হাসছি তাই৷

 ভাবছি মনে, হাসছি কেন ? থাকব হাসি ত্যাগ ক'রে,
ভাবতে গিয়ে ফিকফিকিয়ে ফেলছি হেসে ফ্যাক ক'রে৷
পাচ্ছে হাসি চাইতে গিয়ে, পাচ্ছে হাসি চোখ বুজে,
পাচ্ছে হাসি চিম্‌টি কেটে নাকের ভিতর নোখ গুঁজে৷

 হাসছি দেখে চাঁদের কলা জোলার মাকু জেলের দাঁড়,
নৌকা ফানুস পিঁপড়ে মানুষ রেলের গাড়ী তেলের ভাঁড়৷
পড়তে গিয়ে ফেলছি হেসে 'ক খ গ' আর শ্লেট দেখে—

উঠছে হাসি ভসভসিয়ে সোডার মতন পেট থেকে৷
 (By Sukumar Ray)

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