Banalata Sen

For a thousand years have I paced to and fro

over the earth,

from the seas of sri lanka

to the dark night of Malay seas,

Long have I wandered

in the twilight world of Bimbisa king *

Have I been ,in a land of more distant darkness;

I am a tired soul alone

while around me foams and froths

the ocean of life,

Didn't then Banalata Sen of Natore *

offered me two drops of serenity ?

Her hair the slumberous night in the

ancient darkness of Bidsha *

Her face the carving sculpture of Sravasti *

beyond the endless sea,

The captain of the wrecked and battered ship who

before he loses all,

sees the emerald grass blowing on the far

distant sanctuary

sees with the same vision that I saw

when I beheld her in darkness.

And she said,

Where have you been so long ?