Some Word to Say

No, I will not pledge

Remembrance or grief,

Knowing where the worm is lodged.

I will take no pledge, but say

What some have known,

That others may also know

In times to come.

I pull the shade on my lamp

And up and down the room

Fling for some word to say

That you have been.

And then your face returns;

Face so fair that now

I think it has become

Texture of leaf and moss,

Or the loveliness of rain

On small, obdurate grass-

Woven into the pattern

For all time to come.

Woven into the pattern,

Transfigured in the loom

Of dawn, dark and seasons,

Out of the hand of Time.

And yet another turn

I take in the darkened room,

Room of vacancy,

Bitter vacancy

Of light on empty paper.

Word, some word to say

For times to come

What I alone have known,

That rain, moss and trees

And the loom of dark and dawn

Nor are, nor could be more

Than the you, embodied, warm,

T held in my arms.

BUDDHADEVA BOSE

(adapted from the Bengali)