Habibur Rahman

Grandeur

 

 

The morning sun shone on the autumn field

Making it glitter like gold.

The village bride stood by the bank of the tank.

Lending a rare enchantment to the scene.

Soft sunlight streamed down on the meadows

And filled them with precious wealth,

As the brown village belle

                     Left behind, by the village tank,

The sweet fragrance of her tender charm.

I looked up at the fields

And unalloyed joy filled my heart.

I looked up at the bathing ghat

And my eyes lit up

                       with an eager expectancy.

 

Riding on the wings of sunlight

Memory came to her to from the past

                       floating with the wind,

And rubbed on her eye lids

The fine golden dust of the fields.

Slowly coming to the ghat with weary steps

She swiftly glanced all around

Mingling the tenderness of her dark eyes

With the dust at her feet.

I saw the happiness of gold

                                  in the fields,

And as I came to the ghat

                               my eyes shone with an eager expectancy.

 

This gold was familiar to me.

This dream I had seen at the sharp point

                                    of the plough.

 

This quite enchantment lived

                             in my lonely thatched hut.

 

Someone scattered the gold of my mind

And the magic of my eyes

Into the raining sunlight

And over the sprawling meadows

                              and the ghat.

 

I had recognized her face in field.

 

Now at the ghat I saw her

Waiting for me with an eager expectancy.

 

  

                         Translated by Kabir Choudhury

 

 

 

Habibur Rahman (1926—1976) Poet, Translator and writer of Children Literatuee. Poetry : Uttap (1962), Juvanile Literature : Agdum Bagdum (vols.1 & 2, 1962), Lej Diye Jay Chena (1963), Pal Tule Dao (1961). Awards : Bangla Academy Award-1964.