DEBJANI MITRA
Free verse
MIDNIGHT CHIMES (COLLABORATION WITH DEBJANI MITRA)
This poem is an English translation of one of the beautiful Bengali poem of PS poet MALABIKA RAY CHOUDHURY
Midnight chimes unveil in cascade,
glances of your shimmering face
engulfing me in a transient dream...
As if you never went away!
As if I didn't wake up to see you're gone!
As if I no longer felt the shatters of pain
swaying back and forth, in an empty swing.
And nothing meant anything anymore.
Yet I know that I will hold you forever,
caressing you in the cradle of the moon.
Oh Yes! The enigma of your velvet touch
Is forever my own,
In symphony of the floral sea, and
In embrace of the endless sky.
Copyright © Debjani Mitra | Year Posted 2025
*Entry for What makes you feel poetry contest.
Sponsor: Malabika Ray Choudhury
#2
The tide took my friend away, leaving the salt deep in my wounds to stay
Heidi Sands
4/3/25
(C)opyright
Placed 1st
What makes you feel Poetry Contest
Malabika Ray Choudhury
As the curtains closed on Mom's eyes, stages of memories teared in my heart
Topic#2
N/A
(topic 1)
weeping at the first sight of swifts churning ~ every spring to exhale
What Makes You Feel Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Malabika Ray Choudhury
Written: April 02, 2025, for contest Sponsored by: Malabika Ray Choudhury
***************
Topic 1
Chase happiness in your life; the joy of just existing is enough.
Checked by HMS: 17 Syllables
Giant poet gem, Tagore’s story-poem: NISKRITI,
Is a piazza perched paved and perfectly paced beauty;
Scale model of a castle of vast poetic kingdom,
That has spread into an empire of Indian wisdom!
Manjulika is a dew-drop in the mighty ocean,
Of the land of Bay of Bengal where feminine gender;
Fulfills wants of men as mother, wife, daughter and labors,
Less fulfilled of subtle cravings, in her heart she harbors!
Nucleus firm; Malabika has solemnly sung it,
Narration, like roots, stems, leafs, flowers, fruits of plants well-knit!
Images complex extract emotions, expose like day light,
Questions of destiny hang, like stars in dense dark sky, bright!
Figures of speech, like hand-picked coffee-seeds, well chosen,
And like gems and pearls in an ornament, fairly woven;
With stones of words and verses flat, oval, blunt, round, pear, square,
The edifice erected here is stern, solemn and somber!
05 December 2021
Inspired By A Translation Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Malabika Ray Choudhury
You drift away free from the dark wasteland of life
Grow wings to fly unbound in the draping sunshine
Soar high up above the verdant plateau of the woods
Sing the enthralling spring song of the beguiled heart.
From within the golden cage someone built for me
Where I’m perennially confined, can’t spread my wings
I see you fly in the azure expanse of the limitless sky
Not knowing how a bird feels being in the golden cage.
You implore me to fly out, sing with you rainbow song
My freedom lost in the mirage of golden hue illusive
The air serenading the spring tunes doesn’t reach me
I’ve long forgotten how to croon your cheerful melody.
Someday I’ll liberate my soul from the opulent delusion
Fly out of the golden cage to the firmament of ecstasy.
(Inspred by the original poem (Dui Pakhi) of Rabindranath Tagore,
and its translation (Two Birds) by Malabika Ray Choudhury)
December 2, 2021
Contest : Inspired By A Translation
Sponsor : Malabika Ray Choudhury
Early morning when light is just so
I arise and hasten to sacred place
Fleet of foot through field I go
In my mind, much-beloved face.
Passing forest where delight was found
Talking, touching throughout the night
Free of guilt we became unbound
This passion of ours was perfectly right.
Unmarked grave draws me ever near
Hallowed spot holds me in sway
Here lie memories so crystal clear
Softly I whisper "forever and a day".
Pixabay image by: Marisa04
Translation Poetry Contest
Sponsored
by:
Malabika Ray Choudhury
Demain dès l'aube:Tomorrow, at dawn (Inspiration for poem)
by
Victor Hugo
Translated by Victor Hugo
02/12/2021
You hold me in the palm of your hand like a bird,
but take heed, for I live in your poems, every word.
To you they're pages bound in glue, without a voice.
And yet, they speak of love to me, your veiled bride,
timidly asking, "Do you wish to change your mind?"
I wait for your answer, whispering, "This shall not be,"
holding my breath and hoping to make you see
that behind my smile, life is but a single word, "You..."
My flowers are withering; my eyes hold back tears,
while you hesitate to say, "Until death do we part."
You hover between truth and a lie as I meekly say,
"My heart knows it will always be you and I."
Here I stand, in a wedding dress, telling my story,
while your eyes search mine as I murmur our vows.
I know you can hear every solemn word I speak,
but I wonder... do you hear what I feel?
December 1, 2021
Inspired By A Translation Poem Contest
Sponsored by Malabika Ray Choudhury
Based on the translation by Henry A. Smith,
of 'The Poetess ' by German Poet, Gertrud Kolmar.
Time too has legs;
And they march forward incessantly;
While discharging their duty, they let us know…
How silently minutes and hours pass by;
The clock on my wall tells it to me.
How to be active, and kindle the lives of others,
By ever spreading the tick-tock sound on all sides…
And how to awaken the people fast asleep,
By striking the hours at regular intervals;
The clock on my wall tells it to me.
Time is so smart;
It’s not at our beck and call,
All our attempts to arrest it prove futile…
Instead, it’s we who have to run after it;
The clock on my wall tells it to me.
Title of the poem: “GADIYARAM CHUSTE TELISINDI’
Author of the poem: My own composition in ‘Telugu’, a South Indian language.
Inspired By A Translation Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Malabika Ray Choudhury
Date: 29-11-2021
PLACE: 1st
In your joyful time
you would remember,
I sang for you all,
when the wilted leaves began to fall.
In the barren forest,
reposing abandoned on dry grass,
I sang for you all,
when the wilted leaves began to fall.
In your day-time journey
you would remember,
I traveled in the night
with the lamp of twilight.
I heard the other side of the river call me,
sailing on the broken boat,
I sang for you all,
when the wilted leaves began to fall.
(This is the translation of Rabindranath Tagore's untitled Bengali lyric No. 18 in section "Prem" (Love) in "Geetabitan".)
__________________________
November 21, 2021
Contest : Inspired By A Translation
Sponsor : Malabika Ray Choudhury
Salutations to The Divine Mother
Who envelopes us in a bliss shower
God’s divine essence aglow in our heart
Innate aliveness enabling each breath to start
Effulgence of a thousand suns dispelling darkness
Entwining our mind-body to the That oneness
Moment to moment in a joy continuum
There remaining no ego residuum
Oh Mother! We are bemused by illusion
Senses externalised, desires beget delusion
Fallen from grace, we have forgotten our nature
Your fragrant touch alone restores our true stature
Awaken Mother, here in form, love and wisdom
May our consciousness rise to the sensorium
Dual polarities melding, illumining our soul
That bliss suffused, we again feel whole
09-November-2021
Inspired By A Translation Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Malabika Ray Choudhury
Notes: Gayatri mantra is a popular, age old prayer, in Sanskrit language. For literal translation please visit - https://medium.com/imeditation/gayatri-mantra-translation-word-by-word-meaning-in-english-547431a5d464
Sky
blushing~
trees in bronze
dance as leaves fall,
carpeting the earth
in brown, gold and yellow;
A gentle gypsy wind
blows down the meadow
exuding scent
of old rose~
I smell
YOU.
22.09.2021
MERSE- Beauty Of Fall Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Malabika Choudhury
1st place
frost
like a
silver queen
makes yellow sheen
on bed of leaves with
ruby emerald gloss!
wisp of wind sails across
shuffling the patterns
as crimson rays
heave a sigh
and move
on!
123456
654321 syllables
1st placement
Merse 2 poetry contest
Malabika Choudhury sponsored
written 20/09/21
Leaves
Of gold
Shimmering
Like flames of fire
Dancing in sunlight
Panoramic color
Fall’s splendor, unsurpassed
Vibrant majesty
A symphony
For the eyes
Nature’s
Song
September 20,2021
Merse-Beauty of Fall Contest
Sponsor-Malabika Ray Choudhury
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