১৩
ফাগুন, শিশুর মতো, ধূলিতে রঙিন ছবি আঁকে,
ক্ষণে ক্ষণে মুছে ফেলে, চলে যায়, মনেও না থাকে॥  

WHY DEPRIVE me, my Fate,
of my woman's right
boldly to conquer the best of life's prizes
with mine own arrogant power,
and not to keep gazing at emptiness,
waiting for some chance drifting towards me
with the withered fruit of weary days of patience?
Send me without pity to the utter risk of my all for the treasure
guarded behind rudely forbidding barricades.
Never for me is to steal into the bridal chamber
with the timid tinkling of anklets
in a dim twilight dusk,
but recklessly to rush
into the desperate danger of love,
by some troubled sea,
where its stormy vehemence would snatch away from my face
the veil of shrinking maidenliness,
and amidst the ominous shrieks of sea-birds
could be raised to my warrior my cry
You are mine own.

DAYS WERE drawing out as the winter ended, and, in the sun, my dog played in his wild way with the pet deer.
        The crowd going to the market gathered by the fence, and laughed to see the love of these playmates struggle with languages so dissimilar.
The spring was in the air, and the young leaves fluttered like flames. A gleam danced in the deer's dark eyes when she started, bent her neck at the movement of her own shadow, or raised her ears to listen to some whisper in the wind.
        The message comes floating with the errant breeze, with the rustle and glimmer abroad in the April sky. It sings of the first ache of youth in the world, when the first flower broke from the bud, and love went forth seeking that which it knew not, leaving all it had known.
And one afternoon, when among the amlak trees the shadow grew grave and sweet with the furtive caress of light, the deer set off to run like a meteor in love with death.
        It grew dark, and lamps were lighted in the house; the stars came out and night was upon the fields, but the deer never came back.
        My dog ran up to me whining, questioning me with his piteous eyes which seemed to say, 'I do not understand!'
        But who does ever understand?