Translation of Rubaiyat-i-Gazi Abdulla-hel Baqui
(Gazi Abdulla-hel Baqui has composed a large number of Rubaiyat in Bangla in traditional Persian metrical form, that havealready been published in two Volumes. A number of them have been translated by the poet.)
1.
I am a rank dullard born in this dirty world,
I always think of why I have not been sly and clever.
For, none chooses me in their midst but pulls me for self–interest,
But Saki offers me perfume in ebb-tide Sea of life.
2.
The so-called genius ask me in these ultra-modern days,
For what interest it is fair to compose rhymed Rubaiyat?
But, most readers cry, ’What trash these modern poems are!’
Unintelligibility of such verses proves life’s efforts fruitless.
3.
How my life is spent this moment on the earth, the next on the moon,
This moment I float on love waves, the next I frisk in the lust-trap.
Not a devoted lover am I, but have insatiable thirst to be so,
On this stage the beloved makes me dance on various gestures.
4.
Today I am the murky garden of sorrows, emptied of roses,
The earthly wind drives away smell of birds’ music and tune of monsoon.
Within trance the grief of cloudy moonbeam touched the garden,
The dark-eyes ceaselessly shed rains to blossom roses.
5.
Humility is better than rose and etiquette is without thorns,
Rose is dear for beauty-smell and the thorn-prick brings ebb to love.
The garden of etiquette is full of roses and manners are without thorns,
By obeying these one can be destined with king’s wealth.
6.
Are you a devotee to love? Betray the sign from the heart,
Cancelling hypocrisy accompany me in the journey.
Flow of unspeakable care and affection emits from love,
In attaining love and separation, one has to endure pain and pretension.
7.
My heart and ears are deaf to the outpouring of the wise,
Only the knowledge that ‘good begets good’ is the garland of mine.
It is lulled and followed since birth where all are wrong paths,
So, my knowledge-door to other false address is ever tightly shut.
8.
Human chest is full of limbs, and where the heart in Heart is,
So the machine-man is turned a monster whose aim is to destroy.
Arid soul is loveless as if desert is in the oasis,
On the earth hundreds and thousands are thus starving.
9.
The ripple of smile flows on from the edges of beloved’s lips,
Such a sweet stream-tune makes heart and goblet dance.
As a result an insatiable thirst for benefit increasesunder blue moonbeam,
The Creator seems to strike a tiny change in my luck.
10.
O Saki, you have reserved the garden of my frolics with three knots,
As the first knot is untied, black perfume envelops my existence.
If the second door is opened, I keep bathing in the creamy stream,
I sweat all over in the stormy rain with the open of the last door.
11.
By smashing theologies we the sages start swallowing,
With ingenuous tact, intelligences are sucked up and exploited.
As I start floating in the blue waves of the sea-like-love of my beloved,
In her sky-like eyes I observe then all are frauds.
12.
Being wind I keep questing on what branch you are rocking?
The moon-lamp is so bright that you flee away in the galaxy of star.
To get you in the pollens I make the eye-lids dance.
Though worried but with decorum–you peep out of the patches of cloud.
Biographical Information
Dr. Gazi Abdulla-hel Baqui, poet, writer, translator, and a university professor, has already authored twenty books and a great number of poems, (including haiku and rubaiyat), articles and stories have been published in different national and local and online Dailies, Magazines, Journals, Periodicals etc. Besides being awarded internationally for his poetic accomplishments, he has many a time been honored by different organizations of Bangladesh for his contribution to literature, education and research. A solo cassette album of his eleven poems called `Visions’ and his poems in some anthologies have been published by The National Library of Poetry, Maryland. Oddball Magazine, English Teaching Forum, Poetry.com etc.have also published his poems. His prize-winning poems on peace have been published in Official Catalogues by Cultura-e-Societa, Torino, Italy. His poems generally deal with peace and patriotism, eternal problems and lasting human conviction.
CNBangla/Jibon
