The Sagacious Woody

-
Image
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...
3 comments

A Spooky Spectacle

-


The night before the last night, I caught a glance in plain sight –
The live child o’ the Phantom wild – playing in the full moon night!
Playing on its mother’s lap, giggling with all its glamour,
With a joyous glee, delightedly, frolicking with clamour!

Heard its mom’s cheeky chuckle, as she held it in the air, taut,
Checking how swift and spry was the ghostling she begot.
What a haunting laughter! At lightning speed their sound runs,
Their screams are so shrill and sharp, they'd saw through woods at once!

She punches it, twists its ears and does what not to the kid –
Out of love, she gives it a blow, in the air it hangs morbid.
She calls it, "Come here, my filthy-faced skinny little ghoul –
Turn around and show me your smiley face like the barn owl!"

My muddled monkey, cuddled gulpy, an ugly impish beauty,
From a dingy forest, a stinky civet, my nitwit cutie!
O my rain of hot summer days, you sunlit sleet and ice –    
You're as sweet as the mortar-ground and candied liquorice!

You're the spice – with gloom and joy – to season my life you're born;
Soaring high, in moonlit sky, riding the surreal unicorn!
O my little nincompoop, with a tummy stuffed with flour;
O my cry-kid, a toothless jewel, dare cry a second hour –"

The instant when she slapped it, abruptly, with a mud splash,
The spectre? The spooky semblance? Evanesced all in a flash!

(Bengali original: Bhuture Khela)
Translated by Arkajyoti Banerjee


ভূতুড়ে খেলা

পরশু রাতে পষ্ট চোখে দেখনু বিনা চশমাতে,
পান্তভূতের জ্যান্ত ছানা করছে খেলা জোছনাতে ৷
কচ্ছে খেলা মায়ের কোলে হাত পা নেড়ে উল্লাসে,
আহলাদেতে ধুপধুপিয়ে কচ্ছে কেমন হল্লা সে ৷
শুনতে পেলাম ভূতের মায়ের মুচকি হাসি কট্‌কটে—
দেখছে নেড়ে ঝুন্‌টি ধ'রে বাচ্চা কেমন চট্‌পটে ৷
উঠছে তাদের হাসির হানা কাষ্ঠ সুরে ডাক ছেড়ে,
খ্যাঁশ্‌ খ্যাঁশানি শব্দে যেন করাত দিয়ে কাঠ চেরে !
যেমন খুশি মারছে ঘুঁষি, দিচ্ছে কষে কানমলা,
আদর করে আছাড় মেরে শূন্যে ঝোলে চ্যাং দোলা ৷
বলছে আবার, "আয়রে আমার নোংরামুখো সুঁটকো রে,
দেখনা ফিরে প্যাখনা ধরে হুতোম–হাসি মুখ করে !

ওরে আমার বাঁদর–নাচন আদর–গেলা কোঁত্‌কা রে !
অন্ধবনের গন্ধ–গোকুল, ওরে আমার হোঁত্‌কা রে !
ওরে আমার বাদলা রোদে জষ্টি মাসের বিষ্টি রে,
ওরে আমার হামান–ছেঁচা যষ্টিমধুর মিষ্টি রে ৷
ওরে আমার রান্না হাঁড়ির কান্না হাসির ফোড়নদার,
ওরে আমার জোছনা হাওয়ার স্বপ্নঘোড়ার চড়নদার ৷
ওরে আমার গোবরা গণেশ ময়দাঠাসা নাদুস্‌ রে,
ছিঁচকাঁদুনে ফোক্‌লা মানিক, ফের যদি তুই কাঁদিস রে—"
এই না ব'লে যেই মেরেছে কাদার চাপটি ফট্‌ ক'রে,
কোথায় বা কি, ভূতের ফাঁকি মিলিয়ে গেল চট্‌ ক'রে !

By Sukumar Ray


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fear Not!

-
Image
Fear Not The Original sketch by Sukumar Ray Fear not, fear not – rest assured, I will beat you not – Really, if we wrestle, I can defeat you not. My heart is too soft; fury is what my bones lack, To chew you up and eat alive, I have no knack! You fear so much seeing horns on my head jutting out, Don’t you know my head pains, these aren’t for butting out? Come, come to my burrow, stay four days, I invite, With love I’ll bring you up, and keep you day and night. Seeing club on my hand, you say you don’t want to stay? This club won’t hit you hard, for too light does it weigh. Still not assured? Tell, should I grab you by your feet? I’ll sit over your head and then you’ll try to fleet. I’m there, my wife is there, and I have nine sons too – Fear once more so stupidly, and we’ll all bite you. (Bengali original:  Bhoy Peona ) Translated by Arkajyoti Banerjee ----------------------------------------------------- ভয় পেয়োনা (Bhoy Peona) ভয় ...
Read more

The Tickling Old Man

-
Image
Across the seven seas, go wherever you like you can,  But beware! Never ever approach the tickling old man. A terrible old man – dare not step into his hut – He’ll tickle you on and on till rips apart your gut. No one knows where he stays, in which land so eerie, Once he finds you alone, he’ll read you out a story. So strange his tales are, God knows from which days of yore, They have not the least fun, but they’d make one feel sore. Those tales have no head or tail – total gibberish! Still it is must to laugh – that too against your wish. If it is just a story, one can still bear and endure, But he tickles you with a long feather, and that’s for sure. Keeps on blabbering, “Ho! Ho! Ho! William’s aunt Always sold pumpkins, yams, duck eggs and linseed plant. The eggs were long, the pumpkins but crooked and bent, On the yams were sketched designs in colourful paint. The aunt, in a faint voice, hummed and sang the whole day, Meow-meow, coo-c...
Read more

Pumpkin-Plumpkin

-
Image
Have a look at this freaky peculiar creature, You've never learnt or been taught by any teacher - Don't think I am joking, really, I am serious... If you don't obey my words, he'll just get furious! Pumpkin-Plumpkin (If) Pumpkin-Plumpkin dances – Never approach the stables by any chances, Don’t look left or right and don’t take backward glances; Hang with all four legs from Ruckus-radish branches! (If) Pumpkin-Plumpkin cries – Beware! Never sit on rooftops under the skies; Lie prone in tree-houses, blankets shoulder to thighs, Sing ‘Radhe Krishna Radhe’ in deafening sighs! (If) Pumpkin-Plumpkin laughs – Stand on one leg by kitchen, with no stick or staffs; Speak Persian in whispers, muffled by breath in halves; Fasting all three meals, lie on grass like astray calves! (If) Pumpkin-Plumpkin runs – Make sure you all clamber up the windows at once; Hookah water mixed with rouge, smear lips’n’cheeks in tons; And dare ...
Read more