[662] Cat

Guest poem sent in by Raghavendra Udupa U <raghu_udupa@>

Again and again through the day
I meet a cat.
In the tree's shade, in the sun, in the crowding brown leaves.
After the success of a few fish bones
Or inside a skeleton of white earth
I find it, as absorbed in the purring
Of its heart as a bee.
Still it sharpens its claws on the gulmohar tree
And follows the sun all day long.

Now I see it and then it is gone,
Losing itself somewhere.
On the autumn evening I have watched it play,
Stroking the soft body of the saffron sun
With a white paw. Then it caught
The darkness in paws like small balls
And scattered it all over the earth.

  -- Jibanananda Das

Translated by: Lila Ray
[http://userpages.umbc.edu/~achatt1/poem/cat.html]

There is a poem titled Cat by Jibanananda Das. I don't know Bangla and hence I
haven't read the original. However, the English translation is beautiful and
the image it creates is mesmerizing. The last four lines are magical, a
wonderful way to end a good poem.

regards,
Raghavendra

From: Suresh Ramasubramanian <suresh@>

great poem - but there's a typo (the guy is "Jibanananda Das".  Better say so
before the bongs start a calcutta bandh ;)

	--suresh

-- 
Suresh Ramasubramanian + suresh@
Sysadmin, OyeIndia.Com + http://oyeindia.com
Huh?