Jibanananda Das’ “Ananto jibon jodi pai ami”

If I get to live forever— then forever, I'll be all alone—

If I return to the paths of the world, I'll see green grass

Sprouting—will see yellow grass scattering— the sky

Whitening in the morning—like a tattered munia bird,

Breast blood-stained in the evening—again and again I'll see stars

And view a strange woman untying braided hair and leaving

Alas, her face devoid of traces of the setting sun's soft glow

If I get to live forever—forever, I'll walk the ways of the world

All alone. If I ever return to the world's pathways, I'll see

Trams, buses, dust. Innumerable slums and, broken bowls too—

Dark and dirty lanes; fights, people swearing; squinted eyes

Rotten prawns; I'll see a whole lot of things interminably

And yet all this time I won't get to meet you again—for eternity!

Fakrul Alam is an academic, a writer and a translator based at the University of Dhaka.