North South University Department of English ENG 616: Comparative Linguistics SUMMER 2012

Term Paper: Translation Work On a Birthday: A Translation of Rabindranath Tagores Jonmodine

Faculty: Khaliquzzaman Elias Ph. D.

Submitted by: Sk. Shafiqur Rahman ID: 121 1218 055

On a Birthday 1
It was my birthday. Praying in the morning I opened my sight to the rising horizon, And saw the rained-dawn Depicted a delineation of sandal-light On the delicate ice-white brow of Himalayans. That space at the heart of the whole world, I saw that form Upon the throne of Himalayans. Ages after ages with absolute gravity Nourishing shadows of unknown In the midst of trackless forest Encircling the far-off sky In an impregnable, pathless area In a gyre of spring-decline. Today, in this birthday A feeling of distance arrives densely in my heart As the path of that distant star Through nebula-light-vapor Is covered with mystery, I see my distance in impregnability-

An indiscernible traveler, ones unknown future. Today, in this birthday I hear the plod of that distant traveller From solitary sea-shore.

2
In many birthdays of my life, I saw myself in diverse forms. Once in a new year, at Atlantic I was brought To waves of immense words From directions to horizons To the empty blues To the denial of shore. That day, I saw an indifferent worldWhen the first delineation of creation Submerged the future, Everyday to the rising sun Searching myself. To the covered-mystery of life To the veiling waves Stared and thought, Still my life-casing is not opened-

Fulfilled am I That is still an unseen secret. In every new birthday, The line which is drawn with an artists brush Absolute identification of the picture was not depicted yet. Only I feel, Immense flood of unspoken is everywhere The day encircles the night.

3
In a birth-marry event From different pilgrimage, holy-pilgrim-water I accumulated, that I remember. Once I went to China Whom I do not know Marked on my brow, saying- you are known to us. Fell down the veiling of unknown, I do not know when; Flashed a glance of that eternal-heart human; In an unexpected acquaintance All the banquette of joy got opened. I hold the name of China and wore the clothing. I understood by my mind, Where I get friends, there happens a new birth.

That brings uncommonness. In a foreign flower garden, blooms unknown budsForeigner is its name, Foreign is its birthplace, Its kinship is in the amusement of heart They are always welcome.

4
Again the days of festival comes With umpteen respect of spring Fulfilled botanical branches of poets courtyard With wicker trays of new birthday. I am in a distance closed roomThe invitation of Polash-forest wastes this year My heart says, I sing in a showy spring, Forthcoming sad-dreams grasps in my mind. I know this birthday Makes an indifferent day now Merges with unspotted phase of ages. Shadows of flower trees do not pity this melancholy; Pain of memories does not response in this whisper of forests Heartless happiness must flute in this festival; Keeping aside of the path, the sadness of separation.

5
When I stepped into the eightieth year of my life This wonder arises in my mindWhere millions of stars And fire-cascades fountain of silent-light flood With unimaginable speed submerging the vector of space Everywhere, In that chest of deep unbounded sky My emergence is all of a sudden Like a spark of a moment in this vast creation In the history of chronological century. I come in that world where ages after ages Lives under sea rise from the oven of sea In the large ventral surface of an object I find my mysterious surprising Identity In a furcate shape of conversion. The infatuated false shadow of incomplete existence Covered the beast-people for a long time; Whose intent expectation Terminate numberless days and nights Arrives with sloth departing In the colored human heart;

New lamps are being lighten up one after another Massages are getting new meaning In an unusual light Men see the beauty of their amazing future, At the theater of the world Consciousness flows slowly seen by seenI am in the group of actors Wearing costumes. I was also a member when curtain falls This is my extreme wonder. Mother is the earth, eternal home of soul, Around you in the sky-light-air Under earth, sea, mountains, Circumambulating the sun in a strange determinationThat was a mystery; I came eighty years ago, And will depart a few years later.

6
Tomorrow morning, in my birthday In this up-hill guest-house A Nepali devotee of Buddha came hearing my massage Settling sitting on floor He sang a hymn of Buddha for my pleasure-

I accepted that massage. That great man who born in this earth One day made the birth of everyone glorious, From the birth of human being This earth For the arrival of that person, longed for ages For that the intention of creation In an auspicious moment, by holy-hymn Remembering him, I knew, in my mindEntering into Human world eighty years ago, I was also a holy-sharer of this great person.

7
Came at noon being invited in my Birth-marry ceremony The mountainous people. One by one, they gave me flowers With genuflection. In which time the Earth got Seating on a stony posture This praise after many decades by religious austerities, This flower offering, Will be dedicated in birthdays, I hope. That praise, that genuflection of human beauty

Came at my hand, today This is the beauty of reminiscence of my birth. In the star-designed cosmos Is there anywhere in light Have anyone seen this dear-surprising respect.

8
Tore down the chest of todays birth-marriage News of death-separation came; Sadness burned me with its own fire And became glowing. In evening with goodness, the setting sun offers Blessing of pride-blood-glow, It makes a golden face of forth coming night Thus burning flame dragged me to death At the west-end of life. At light, has been shown Its integrated life, where birth and death mingle; That glow submerges its bright immortality In the poverty of fate, days after days, it was hidden.