Poems of Arunava Raha Roy

Rabindra Sadan

Suddenly what happened, that your mobile phone flew away & landed inside my pocket directly from the space! What happened suddenly, that we kept stand still on the Rabindra Sadan back stage and the whole auditorium transferred into a ship! Oh look over there in the second floor, the white bearded captain whistling to command & start the journey. The fun & frolic will be starting right now… the young ladies from Andaman were about to start playing billiard! Where will we be floating away with this ship? Let's go, let us stand united close to the deck railing… let the wind starts floating hitting our sails. This scenario alike to Titanic, let it stand here, now let us flee away leaving the scene, leaving ourselves... to have some beer somewhere else.. Let a world, absolutely owned by us, starts revolving around us. The lord himself is standing just a bit outside the universe, with that world keeping on his palm... No other way to go! Without spoiling each other we won't be able to go anywhere else leaving this orbit, never ever...

(Translated from Bengali: Debanjana Mukherjee Bhowmik)

Bygone

Staying far is good.

Staying far means

we can never meet again.

Is it good, not to meet?

Definitely not!

But, being far can mean

that we can perhaps meet in

some coffee shop around

the city...

(Translated from Bengali: Anindita Bose)

Faraway

You remained silent,

you had a reason too!

I too did not say anything for many days...

So, now, shall we begin to

talk again?

Let alone meeting,

many days you did not even ask me to write and yet

on your words I could have traveled

to Shimla-Manali...

since there were mountains,

there were some more songs

"Hey poet, how are you?"

You can break the

pattern and ask me once.

(Translated from Bengali: Anindita Bose)

Bodhi

If you gift poems,

how long can I keep writing?

Shall I inscribe you into my

visceral intensity?

Deep inside that tree hollow

whose Esraj plays such a

pristine melody?

As your vibrations come

closer to me, an intense

desire to create more engulfs

my existence.

I revive again to attain the

light through the collaged-water...

(Translated from Bengali: Anindita Bose)

Spring Restaurant

Come, let us travel from one

Spring to another...

Let us meet.

Let me listen your

Nightingale voice

When you speak.

Tell me about your

father's well-being!

Come,

let us go from one Spring to

another...

Let us both sink and drink

water...

Let us perch

within the moonspace

and converse...

(Translated from Bengali: Anindita Bose)

At Jorasanko with Snija

I ran out of poems

But a few of the songs of you came flipping their wings all the way to me,

I ask my writings to get drenched in soothing water,

I assure them that there is nothing that can be better

My dearest,I give you the name 'Snija'

I shall call you lovingly by this name from this very moment 

I shall drape your love all over my new born poems

During the rainy season the blow came from far away America...

Forget it, I thought with a sigh;

My dear, come, let's take a stroll at Jorasanko, together you and I

(Translated from Bengali: Pratyush Karmakar)

Goddess

For long I had been walking on a rope 

Albeit it was tough

But I travelled a fruitful distance no doubt 

Where I finally stopped is called earth

Some unknown artist meticulously made you with this very earth

I place poems in your ten palms instead of brutal weapons,

But you fling all the poems unto the unknown;

After some moments of loathsome disgust

The poems will become burning stars

(Translated from Bengali: Pratyush Karmakar)

Myth

If you really hurt me I shall not hesitate to go away

And lean against the dejected sky

Why are you so silent yet unfathomable?

You are like a drop of water on the floor

Today I retrieved this drop of water from the River Jalangi 

While still leaning against the sky I shall certainly make you understand-

That you are water

I shall, one day, like the fabled crow, bring you up from the depth of the earthen pitcher by putting stone chips one after the other until I can touch you. 

You are water

(Translated from Bengali: Pratyush Karmakar)

Silent Belle

The colour of your disregard is like that of the dusk in flight

Which hides itself on the back of the moon

Sleepy eyelids are like weary rivulet which wash away all the light within

You come hurriedly to the office gate,

And lo! There drips down your body a lightning divine

(Translated from Bengali: Pratyush Karmakar)

Wonder

You are such a lover! What a poem!

You didn't come to Manali but through pen.

Bloomed in the tub, on the edge of the current...

Bless me, waking up late night

I am sitting in the hotel room to write you.

Those who have come to travel, no one knows

Here you are every day pick up the sun

from the alloy and burn it on the top of the mountain..

(Translated from Bengali: Mahmud Mitul)

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Arunava Raha Roy born in 1991 in Alipurduar town of West Bengal, India. He did his higher education in Kolkata. He loves poetry from his early age, had stemmed from his father who was a known poet. Since then, his work has been publishing regularly in leading magazine of Bengal. In the first stage of professional career he worked as a Poetry Editor in a print magazine and worked also as the Literary Editor in a web magazine. He has completed M. Phil from Assam University.

He has published four books of his own creation of poetry-- Sabuj Patar Megh (2010), Dinanter Bhasha (2015), Khamkheyali Pashbalish (2018) and Snijar Sange Jorasankoy (2020). He is the recipient of Barnali Smriti Puraskar (2015), Uralpool Puraskar (2017) and Soumen Basu puraskar (2017). He has recieved Travel Grant 2018 from Sahitya Akademi. Attend All India Young Writers Meet, May 2021 (Sahitya Akademi, Government of India). Attend Dhaka Lit Fest, Nov 2018. Went to Bangladesh Amar Ekhushe Grantha Mela, Feb 2018. Email: arunavaraharoy@gmail.com