You Are Leaving Poem by Nirmalendu Goon

You are leaving: the steamboat starts off undulating the river
Amidst the clamour of engine
From behind the cloud of smokes
Beauty of your weary face gleams
I don't remember from when I am watching your going away.
You're leaving: there is no end to your leaving away
It has been long since you started leaving
There is no end to it, no end by any means.

A few words with the winds, a few words with the rains
Then I spot you again as I turn to the Dhaleswari;
As if your sailing starts off afresh. You're leaving:
The launch starts off undulating the waters
Your weary fading face flashes tearing the black smokes
Exactly like your leaving for the first time.
You're leaving: with two winkless eyes
I keep on gazing in the direction of your way.

You're leaving: the river ripples with whimper
You're leaving: the wind whiffs of death
You're leaving: my existence sways. The steamboat starts off
The turbine picks up speed shaking up my soul's propeller.
Your vanishing face flashes tearing through the moving cloud of smokes
As if you're drowning and floating up
Nothing can complete your departure.
You're going for 3000 days, you're going and going.

2
You're leaving; the sky collapses on the moonlight of the wavy river
Your sailboat, like a black goose,
making way through the kāsh grove,
grazing the sugarcane fields,
proceeds at the beckon of an unknown universe. As you go away
the sky breaks down like a sky. O waves,
O all devouring river, O unfeeling dark boat, whom
you're carrying away atop, she was none to me - why then
The evening sky falls down on the moonlit waters?
Falling down into the deep of water, only because you're leaving away?

3
You're packing up: bulbs knock off the lamp posts
Intense darkness of earth's womb descends encompassing the whole town
As if a crafty magician has spread his black scarf over this township
There is no music except for the saddening chorus of a few crickets
There is no jingle; no artistry of life, there's no soulful animation.
Rendering this locality blind, you're moving to a distant city.
Collecting in my eyes some dreamy light from that city
I wonder at your destination, skyward. You're leaving:
Noah's flood erupts in your departing eyes, spectacles. You're leaving:
a melancholic beagle stirs up a storm in the inside Ashoke garden
You're going away
Leaving behind a wretched forlorn city of dead.

4
Clouds of sorrow collect in the restless eyes
I can't look at your face.
I look around to steal a glance at you.
The rains drench the aerodrome: my eyes tend to mingle with water
I can't look up and meet your eyes.

5
You're going away, my poems are lying alone
Laden with the grief of a shot down lion.
You're leaving: some words waver in tears.

[Translated by Faizul Latif Chowdhury]