By: Kakali Biswas Sengupta
Translated by:  Soma Roy

Stealing the fragrance of youth
Breaking waters, grasshoppers fly away to the eternity
Like the girl who appears sans make-up
Tracing the flight-marks I walk along
Become light, become breeze or spellbound musk stag.
The river nearby is now in a high tide.
In the afternoons, Anadi’s wife still spicens guava cubes
The kid who grew up holding hands still solves sums
And my own fragrance waits for nightfall
A fistful of adolescent memories, a submerged wooden chest

******

Kakali Biswas Sengupta (b.1966) started her writing career from 1989 as a poet, but also writes short stories and non-fiction. Many of her poems and other writings have been published in Desh, Sananda, Ananda Bazar Patrika, Bartaman and other Bangla Little Magazines. She has two published books of poetry, and can be contacted at bs.kakali@gmail.com

Soma Roy (b.1959) translates from English to Bangla and vice versa and also from German. Some of her translations have appeared in magazines and e-zines like Indian Literature(Sahitya Akademi), Wild Violet, Choreo Mag Durbasha, Pyrta etc. Two books of poems translated by her, Marigold Moments and Rabindranath need special mention. Email:somaa1@gmail.com