Winter, Cold and Graceful | Bhaben Barua | trans. Emdad Ullah

There’s a silent grace mathematical, in each and every bone,
Like smiles unembodied, in each and every cell,
The ultimate that has no colour, no sound, no taste nor smell.
The far-off nebula all empty, empty, empty
Only the blind restlessness of matter through millions of light years;
Where only heaps of matter way, straight, bent, zigzag, prolonged, angular, rounded….

Blind restlessness!
Upon the peak of the non-living,the first flash of
Joy of the ‘Palash’-
The commotion of blood-red lives,
The blood-red voice of seeds in the sun’s abode.

Blind restlessness:
Flowers and fruits on the tip of brush-
Filled with ambrosia,
Blood-red smiles rise all over the body,
The moving passion of youth, its muscular enterprise

O’erflowing the banks-
Blind restlessness?
There’s a silent grass mathematical,
The unembodied smiles of matter-
In our songs too?

Bhaben Barua is prominent poet and a critic. He served as a faculty member of Guwahati University. He edited The Assam Quarterly, The Assam Academic Review and The Research Journal of Guwahati University. He received the Sahitya Akademi award (1979) for Sonali Jahaj, a poetry-collection.