TRANSLATIONS: ARUNAVA SINHA

In your hair and eyes, lips and breasts
Hips and neck
Beauty was evenly distributed

There was nectar in your voice
A lilt in your laughter
And the lament of death in your tears

In my youth
You were the symbol of my lover
In love’s growth, lust’s flames
You were mine in my dreams
Caught in my embrace, over and over

You roused my passion, Bengal’s Urvashi
Eternally young, forever beyond reach
This mourning poet’s
Homeless flowers of love
Are for you

[ Written in 2005, nine years before Bengali actress Suchitra Sen’s death ]