Akashlina

"Akashlina" (Bangala:আকাশলীনা) is one of the most celebrated and recited poem of poet Jibanananda Das along with his another sophisticated poem Banalata Sen ( Bangala : বনলতা সেন ).It was composed by the poet in the late Thirties of 20th century when the poet was in great distress with his wife.It was first published in 1940 in a verse collection named Satti Tarar Timir.

Suanjana oi khane jeyo nako tumi,
Bolonako kotha oi juboker sathe;
Fire aso suronjona;
Nokhother rupali agun bhora rate;

Fire asho ei mathe,dew-e
Fire asho hridoye amar;
Dur theke dhure aro dhure
Juboker sathe tumi jeyo nako ar.

KI kothotha tahar sathe tar sathe
Akasher opare akash,
Mrittikar moto tumi aj
Tar prem ghas hoye ashe

Suanjana tumar hridoye aj ghas,
tumar hridoye aj ghas,
Batasher opare batash,
Akasher opare akash!

Suranjana never go there,
Talk not with this buffon:
Come back
On this. night of silvery star-fire;?

Come back to this field, this wave;
Come back to my heart;
Don't go any more with that buffon
Further and yet more far.

To him what the hell you talk,
Sky beyond the sky:
You seem to be clay
His love comes to you like grass.?

Suanjana
Your heart today is grass:
Wind beyond the wind
Sky beyond the sky?

"Akashlina" was composed by Jibanananda Das in the late Thirties of 20th century when he was living in Calcutta, passing life through struggle after losing job of Assistant Lecturer at the City College. The relevant manuscript was discovered and labelled Book-9 while being preserved in the National Library of Calcutta. The poem occurs on page 12 of the manuscript. It was first published in the December 1940 in a verse collection named Satti Tarar Timir It is also the first poem of his third collection of poetry published in 1942 under the title Akashlina. Earlier, the lyric was collected in Modern Bengali Poetry jointly edited by Abu Sayeed Ayub and Hirendranath Mukhopadhyaya, published in 1940. Although popularly regarded a romantic lyric, poet’s historical sense of human existence is unmistakably the underlining essence.

Starting with poet Jibanananda Das himself, Akashlina has been translated into English by many hands. They include Martin Kirkman, one with the initials S.D., Puroshuttam Das together with Shamosri Das, P. Lal, Mary Lago in collaboration with Tarun Gupta, Chidananda Dasgupta, Ananda Lal, Clinton B. Seely, Sukanta Chaudhuri, Anupam Banerjee, Hayat Saif, Faizul Latif Chowdhury, Fakrul Alam, Anjana Basu, Joe Winter, Ron. D K Banergjee, Joydeep Bhattacharya, Arun Sarker, and Amitabha Mukerjee. A comparison of the translations reflect difference in understanding and interpretation as perceived by the translators. In certain points, interpretation by the translator differs from that of the poet himself, as reflected in his own translation.

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Wikipedia