Jibanananda Das (17 February 1899 – 22 October 1954 / Barisal / Bangladesh)

Looks light is fading out—wonder is waning all the more.
Is the sky blue as it was? The sky is no longer as blue,
Neither is there much wonder left in women's eye,
Kingfishers today are children's birds; kids are no longer
Someone's children with silky hair; can you imagine
Love vibrant with the same blood? A punch as deadly as ever?
Fog just as cold as it was? Who cares for order, who saves
anymore? Yet life seems to turn profound all the more.

I have discerned a beauty not known before—shaking off
all of past—a new Spring has embraced my life;
The Shalik birds quiver in the fields—it feels chilly,
chilly out there, —still, within my heart, in the soul's woodland
Quietly the autumn night disappeared—even the winter was
suddenly over
Because she has emerged now, whom I had sought in vain
there - in Rome and Babylon.

[Translated by Faizul Latif Chowdhury]