Banalata Sen

Banalata Sen

Long I have been a wanderer of this world,

Many a night,

My route lay across the sea of Ceylon somewhat winding to

The seas of Malaya.

I was in the dim world of Bimbisar and Asok, and further off

In the mistiness of Vidarbha.

At moments when life was too much a sea of sounds,

I had Banalata Sen of Natore and her wisdom.

I remember her hair dark as night at Vidisha,

Her face an image of Sravasti as the pilot,

Undone in the blue milieu of the sea,

Never twice saw the earth of grass before him,

I have seen her, Banalata Sen of Natore.

When day is done, no fall somewhere but of dews

Dips into the dusk; the smell of the sun is gone

off the Kestrel's wings. Light is your wit now,

Fanning fireflies that pitch the wide things around.

For Banalata Sen of Natore.