Somewhere in these ruins I once lost my heart.
And yet, these ruins have seen better days;
The derelict structure in red bricks, which now
Haunts my mind, like a ghost, dead, yet not dead;
The forgotten growth of the wild hedges-
They sang sometime back, they glistened in rain,
Shone in the sun, shivered at fall;
And each morning smiled back at me, feeling
Achieved that it survived the day past,
Expectant that it shall see the next sunrise.
What can you see now, though!
There! That window held my beloved,
Framed in dark, her face a radiant moon,
Like a picture painted she smiled upon fortune-
Did rain and shine spoil the canvas-
What, and one day I saw her frown!

Do you know, how I have spent my days since-
In suspended animation, the lone leaf
At fall, tumbling down from heights,
Caught in the lens of some unknown camera.
And which was better- the dried up stalk,
Now sucked up off all juice, all rain and shine-
Or the drier land still, the brown crust,
Now red with corpses replete?
Like the white clouds, though not so high,
I floated, unaware, unforced, uncertain,
I saw the greenery back, dun quite ahead-
I still float, laden with burden-
Unshed water, and the unknown care-
How far ahead?
-1\9\99,Calcutta-63