Is My Mother Really Black Poem by Kamalakanta Bhattacharya

Is my black Mother Syama really black?
People say Kali is black,
but my heart doesn't agree.
If She's black,
how can She light up the world?
Sometimes my Mother is white,
sometimes yellow, blue, and red.
I cannot fathom Her.
My whole life has passed trying.

She is Matter,
then Spirit,
then complete Void.

It's easy to see
how Kamalakanta
thinking these things
went crazy.

[Translated from 'Singing to the Goddess: Poems to Kali and Uma from Bengal' by Rachel Fell McDermott]