Translations from Bangla

1

you held my face And the mirror - broke down into thousand pieces flakes stuck in the eyes of those struck with your beauty those, who saw you 2

a sorceress, you hid under your jaws a tiny chrysalis floating away a butterfly fortunately applauded by children 3

sometime yesterday a broad-hipped girl sat on my broken lap sipping steaming tea desire, her mother transplanted kathalichampa seeds in my woodland they all returned home in the thickest of nights following the scent-trail 4

bare disclosed child becomes Goddess like a rickety-winged insect unbearable pain is discovering immortality was always at the tip of my tongue 5 the lioness looks for her own bloody footsteps through the night in the dank/dark forest in desperation she licks through the layers of decaying mulch does nature know visalyakarani or just breeds poison in Sapphic conjunction (union) 6 little box houses inside enormous rooms give me holes or caves or a hollow within the tree trunk a tent a cover a covering hand at least the starry blue firmament above never asked for beauty, nor fame, nor glory i am truly afraid of the fathomless careless space looming everywhere, Mother 7 one glimpse of you golden chalice behold – i pour wine for lunatics and sluts one hint of your electric tresses behold – i dance with my severed head in hand 8 a game that death plays a life weighed down by death a demise so much greater than death do i not still live to learn life do i still not farm death to harvest life but only nurturing a skeletal landscape now stop the plowing and sowing let us wait for a good bout of rain 9 the extent of death that validates a birthday is still insufficient (still makes me a failure) except my crumbling boundary wall yet holds a few banyan saplings smeared with life-smell i bear yesterday in my blood stream i bear tomorrow upon my eyelashes nevertheless debts of today remain unpaid 10 look i have gathered my hands in worship tell me this is what you wanted look my forehead is grazing your terrain tell me this is where i was supposed to be i am waiting in your scene (act) but where the fuck are you 11 both shoulders naked in impudence both shoulders a retrospective bawdy bites blossoming and maturing i named one Ahurmajda the other Ahriman _ Original poems written in Bangla by Sumita Beethi. Both translation and original poems published together in the book Friendship as Social Justice Activism: Critical Solidarities in a Global Perspective (2018), edited by Niharika Banerjea, Debanuj DasGupta, Rohit K. Dasgupta, and Jaime M. Grant.