How remote, how exceedingly distant is the realm of the stars!

Binoy Majumder 

Binoy Majumdar was one of the major post-Tagore poets, who, despite his higher education in engineering, spent his life in a one-sided love with a woman. He was not only a poet but also a brilliant engineer, a social reformer, and a dervish-like individual with communist ideals, whose life is an astonishing story oscillating between brilliance and deep mental agony.

Binoy spent the last several years of his life away from the noise of Calcutta in a dilapidated house in Thakurnagar, where his only friends were butterflies, fish, and trees. He called himself India’s first “Chandal poet,” dismantling human arrogance to present a formula for equality with nature. He rejected offers to become a university professor, choosing instead to be a poet. He was hospitalized for psychiatric treatment multiple times, where he received electric shocks. Laughing at himself, he would say: “I am the Inspector General of all the mental asylums in West Bengal.”

Binoy Majumdar introduced the concept of “Green Romanticism” to Bengali poetry. This theory emphasizes a deep unity between humans and nature. Researchers refer to his works as Écriture Écologie, or ecological writing. While traditional romantic poets were limited to flowers and nightingales, Binoy used unconventional symbols such as fish, mosquitoes, insects, blood, and flesh.

Translated by: Sangita Kar 

Forever Solitary

I

Forever solitary, sequestered within an enduring embargo,

How remote, how exceedingly distant is the realm of the stars!

How prolonged, O distant wanderer, has been your absence—summoned through countless days,

As I search, bowing my head in quiet desperation, seeking utterance at life’s concluding verge.

O distant entity, perpetual misunderstanding,

You linger ever close beside me in the shadowed periphery;

Bearing all reproach, all trespasses, all accumulated grief,

You draw the unhealed past back into the consciousness of our clandestine intimacy.

You drift away, soaring toward the stainless blue of the distant firmament,

While I, steadfast and frozen within a vast expanse, sit in quiet contemplation—

Imagining the boundless ocean, wondering how near you once truly were!

II

I sit enthroned in darkness amidst the melancholy breath of mournful winds,

With all the profound sighs of existence harbored within my breast.

Isolated, I gaze upward into the fathomless blue abyss of the heavens;

I know full well, O distant wanderer that you shall never descend upon this terrestrial field—

Leaving nought save the silent shadows of the stars to weep upon the earth.

চিরদিন একাএকা

১ চিরদিন একাএকা অবরোধে থেকে বুঝিনি কথারা থাকে অতি দূর নক্ষত্রের দেশে। কতোদিন দূরাগতা, কতোদিন গেছো তুমি ডেকে, কতোদিন প্রাণপণে কথা খুঁজে খুঁজে খুঁজে নত মুখে তাকিয়েছি শেষে।

দূরাগতা, ভুল বুঝোনাকো। তুমি যদি পাশে ব‘সে থাকো, মনে নেমে আসে তবে জীবনের সব ব্যর্থতা, সব গ্লানি, সব অপরাধ; নিজের অতীত নিয়ে কেন যেন মনে মনে খেলি, দূরাগতা। তুমি যেন চ‘লে যাও অতি দূর, অমলিন নক্ষত্রের নীলে; আমি যেন ধীর হিম, বিশাল প্রান্তরে ব‘সে ব‘সে সমুদ্রের কথা ভাবি, অনুভব করি তুমি কতো কাছে ছিলে!

২

অন্ধকারে ব‘সে আছি, চারিদিকে প্রান্তরের বিধুর বাতাস। নক্ষত্রের দিকে চেয়ে বুকে জমে জীবনের সব দীর্ঘশ্বাস। আমি একা প‘ড়ে আছি, তুমি আছো আকাশের সুনীল অতলে। জানি, তুমি এই মাঠে আসবে না দূরাগতা, নক্ষত্রের ছায়া নাকি পড়ে শুধু পৃথিবীর তিনভাগ জলে!

_____________  

Mrs. Sangita Kar is an author and researcher specializing in geopolitics and cultural history. She is a vibrant new voice in political and cultural literature. A proud alumna of Jadavpur University, she completed both her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in International Relations, graduating in 2020 and 2022 respectively. She also served as Unit Secretary of JUABVP and National Executive Member of ABVP. Hailing from the historic and illustrious Maju Bose Family of Howrah on her maternal side, Sangita seamlessly weaves her deep cultural heritage with her academic expertise. Her writing bridges the gap between ancient Indian ethos and contemporary statecraft. Her insightful commentaries on global politics, Hindu spirituality, and nationalism have been featured across numerous journals and publications. Currently preparing for the Civil Services, she lives in Kolkata, West Bengal, where she spends her leisure time immersed in the rhythms of Carnatic music and the grace of the Odissi dance form.

Read: Beneath The Sidereal Gleam

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