Come, let us ponder on this question whatever I had around me

What happened to all those beautiful dreams we

had dreamt?
When wealth increased why did poverty also Grass and pebbles
increase in the country? Reptiles All the terrible catastrophes
What happened to the means of increasing the Broken temples Escaped your eyes
prosperity of the people? Whatever was around me You did not burn in the tortuous fire of '46
Those who walked beside us on the street of the Exile The famine and the epidemic
gallows Folklores That came through the blood
What happened to those friends and comrades and Solitary sunset The land where sons killed each other
fellow travellers? Whatever was around me The flesh of mothers
What is the price being set for the blood of Landslides Fueled a living hell.
martyrs? Arrows and spears You did not have to see
What happened to the punishable ones for whom A homestead The '47 Partition that was
we were ready to lay down our lives? All shiver with their faces turned west. Worse than madness in Lumbini.
The helpless cannot even afford a shroud to cover Memories are like a serpentine crowd Contrary to these experiences,
their nakedness Under the mango trees, broken boxes A light of humanity had filled your life, Poet.
What happened to those promises of silks and One step denying another We too had learnt to dream from you.
brocades? And suddenly all are homeless. These past twenty years
Cherisher of democracy, friend of humanity, wisher A history of sewage afloat,
of peace Whatever is around me Thirst, a bath, life, all inhuman.
What happened to all those titles we had conferred Sealdah station Worse than the old hag
upon ourselves? High noon Who runs the brothels at Shonagachi.
Why is the malady of religion still without a cure? Pockmarked walls Ministers, leaders, teachers, writers, students,
What happened to those rare and precious Whatever is around me Dogs on heat,
prescriptions? Blind alleys This independent land joins all together.
Every street is a field of flames, every city a Slogans All our dreams are like drunken jokes
slaughterhouse The Monument Played on the reeds of an oft-used harmonium.
What happened to the principles of the oneness of Whatever is around me Even in your nightmares
life? The bed of arrows You had not thought such calamity
Life wanders aimlessly in the wilderness of gloom Lamp-posts Would befall this free country
What happened to the moons that had risen on the The Ganges flowing red You had thus remained true
horizon? The bones and the darkness within To your dreams of humanity.
If I am the culprit, you are no less a sinner Surround them all
O leaders of the nation you are guilty too Inside a tune plays on
The Howrah Bridge is holding up high
The void
Under my feet drifts Time.

Whatever is fountain around me

Flying hair
Naked path
The stormy torch
Whatever is transparent around me
The sound of the dawn
The body after a bath
The Shiva of the cremation ground
Whatever is death around me
Each day
A thousand days
A birthday
All return in the palms of memory
As the beggar who sits in the fading dusk
What was and what remains,
Two flintstones that scrape each other
And ignite my daily rehabilitation.