These ditties are fiction. My own experiences in the field of romantic love have been very limited, but I seem to be making up for that in these amours I am spinning in my dotage.
I seem to be doing this spinning, in the main, in two languages. There might be some significance in that—or not.
One of these languages is my mother tongue, Bangla (Bengali). My formal education in this language was poor and interrupted, and my reading in it has been very limited. So my Bengali vocabulary remains, to a large extent, at the level of a student in elementary school.
The other language, English, was once, along with troops, armaments and more, a vehicle of colonial rule in my land of birth. It is also the primary language of the country I have lived in for the past forty years. But I still have my strong native accent and I still have to struggle to pronounce English words in either of the two main standard ways. That is a handicap indeed when venturing to write poetry.
Nevertheless, here's yet more of the froth.
Once again, I have provided, following the piece in the traditional Bengali script, two Roman transcriptions (this time, with Google's version first) and then a translation into English.
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দূরের থেকে প্রেম
দূরের থেকে ভালবাসা,
দূরের থেকে প্রেম —
রইবে কি সে বছর ধরে?
বল আমায়, মেম৷
মাঝে মাঝে চোখাচোখি,
মাঝে মৃদু হাসি,
এই দিয়ে কি চলবে গাড়ি?
কহ, প্রাচ্যবাসী৷
টানতে হবে, ঠেলতে হবে,
নইলে যাবে থেমে৷
সকল দেশে, পথের ওপর
খাটনি আছে, প্রেমে৷
উত্তরে যাও, দক্ষিনে যাও,
পশ্চিমে বা পূর্বে,
ততই কথা সত্যি হবে,
যতই দূরে ঘুরবে৷
দূরের থেকে, প্রেমের বাঁধন
হবে ক্রমে ক্ষয়৷
ভালবাসা পেতে, সখী,
দিতেও কিছু হয়৷
বিকেল ৫:৩৪, শুক্রবার
৩রা জুন, ২০১৫ খ্রি
ব্রুক্লিন, নিউয়র্ক
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The Roman transcription directly below was obtained via http://google.com/translate. I have lightly edited this "machine transcription". This was done mainly to remove unnecessary short a's (those that should not be pronounced) and to put in capitalization and periods that had been left out.
Those who are not familiar with this transcription scheme, but wish to use it to learn (or at least correctly pronounce) Bengali, might want to read the note at the very end of the post at http://thedailypoet.blogspot.com/2015/07/beside-seaxagor-tire-sagar-tire.html.
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Dūrēr Thēkē Prēm
Dūrēr thēkē bhālabāsā,
dūrēr thēkē prēm—
ra'ibē ki sē bachar dharē?
Bala āmāẏ, mēm.
Mājhē mājhē cōkhācōkhi,
mājhē mr̥du hāsi,
Ē'i diẏē ki calbē gāṛi?
Kaha, prācyabāsī.
ṭāntē habē, ṭhēltē habē,
na'ilē yābē thēmē
Sakal dēśē, pathēr ōpar
khāṭni āchē, prēmē.
Uttarē yā'ō, dakṣinē yā'ō,
paścimē bā pūrbē,
tata'i kathā satyi habē,
yata'i dūrē ghurbē.
Dūrēr thēkē, prēmēr bām̐dhan
habē kramē kṣaẏ.
Bhālabāsā pētē, sakhī,
ditē'ō kichu haẏ.
bikēl 5:34, Śukrabār
3rā Jun, 2015 khri
Bruklin, Ni'uẏark
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The transcription scheme used below is my own and is briefly summarized at http://thedailypoet.blogspot.com/2014/02/bharot-xadhin-indias-freedom.html.
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Durer Theke Prem
Durer theke bhalobaxa,
durer theke prem—
roibe ki xe bo`chor dhore?
Bo`lo amae, mem.
Majhe majhe cokhacokhi,
majhe mridu haxi,
ei die ki colbe gar’i?
Ko`ho, praccobaxi.
T’ante ho`be, t’helte ho`be,
Noile jabe theme.
Xo`kol dexe, po`ther opor
khat’ni ache, preme.
Uttore jao, dokkhine jao,
poxcime ba purbe,
to`toi ko`tha xotti ho`be,
jo`toi dure ghurbe.
Durer theke, premer ba~dhon
ho`be kro`me kho`e.
Bhalobaxa pete, xokhi,
diteo kichu ho`e.
bikel 5:34, Xukrubar
3ra Jun, 2015 khri
Bruklin, Niu Io`rk
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Below this is a translation of the poem into English. In all but a few lines, the translation is fairly literal. However, those attempting to decipher the Bengali from the translation should be warned that word-order in Bengali is radically different from that in English.
This is true, not only for Bengali, but for most Indian languages, and indeed, most Asian ones, (with the Sinic, Malay and Mon-Khmer tongues being notable exceptions) relative to most European languages (with Turkish and some of the Samoyedic and Uralic languages being the main exceptions to the European ordering).
In particular, postpositions are used rather than prepositions, and the standard word order is subject-object-verb, rather than subject-verb-object as is standard in most of Europe. However, thanks to case-endings (usually case-postpositions), there is considerable flexibility in the word order, be this for emphasis or for other effect. This is a boon when writing in rhythmic verse.
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The love that is from far away,
The warm, imagined kiss—
Can this remain, for years and years?
Do tell me, western miss.
The eyes that meet from time to time,
The shy and furtive smile—
Will this sustain, dear eastern maid,
Love’s train, for mile and mile?
Without the pull and push, the train
Will slow and then will stop.
In every land, there’s labor on
The tracks, for every love.
Go north or south or west or east.
You’ll find it’s always true.
The more you wander from your love,
The more the loss you’ll rue.
The distance wears away, in time,
The ties that let it live.
To get of love, my dearest, you
Will also have to give.
5:34 pm, Friday
June 3, 2015
Brooklyn, New York
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