Jibanananda Das

Darkness once again thickens throughout the sky:
This darkness, like light's mysterious sister
She who has loved me always,
Whose face I have yet to see,

We who have walked deserted stubble fields on a December evening,
Who have seen over the field's edge a soft river woman
Her fog flowers-they all are like some village girls of old-We who have seen in darkness the akanda tree, the dhundu...

Again and again through the day I meet a cat
In the tree's shade, in the sun, in the crowding brown leaves
After the success of a few fish
Or inside a skeleton of white earthI find it, as absorbed in the

There's a rather indistinct human anxiety all around in the day's light:on streets, in alleys, on tram line tracks and sidewalks;
Somewhere just now another's home is to be auctioned-it seems,
Dirt cheap
Everyone is going to take ad...

Here on the edge of the forest I pitched camp
All night long in pleasant southern
By the moon's lightI listen to the call of a doe in heat
To whom is she calling

Dawn:
Sky, the soft blue of grasshopper's belly
Guava and custard apple trees all around, green as parrot feathers
A single star lingers in the

Into the half light and shadow I go
Within my
Not a dream, but some sensation is at work
Not a dream, not peace, not love,

Last night was thick with wind, a time of countless stars
All night long, a vast wind played within my mosquito net
At times that net swelled like a monsoon sea's belly
Tearing loose from the bed every once in a