If I Get an Eternal Life

 

If I get an eternal life,

If I can go on walking alone

On the paths of earth forever,

I will watch how the leaves grow green;

I’ll see how they turn pale and go off the scene;

I’ll behold how the sky becomes white in the dawn,

And is drawn to dusk with a reddish hue on its chest,

Like the blood splash of a slain munia.

I’ll be able to meet the stars, again and again;

I will see an unknown girl going away

With her hair freed from a loosely locked bun:

Her face missing the comely touch of twilight. 

         

If I really get a life without an end,

If I can roam around the roads of the world,

Alone, for eternity-for a time without bend-

I will see countless trams, buses and dust;

I’ll see bunches of slums, huts, swampy lanes,

Broken chillums and urns;

I will see quarrels here and there.

I’ll watch street fights, squint eyes, rotten shrimps-

And countless other things,

I won’t be able to put into words.

And still I won’t be able to see

A glimpse of you

In my eternal life,

Ever again.  

 

© Atique R.

It’s a translation of the Bengali poem, ‘Ononto Jibon Jodi Pai Ami,’ by Jibanananda Das.