Going

Notes

As Shamim Azad told us, her friend Rudra Mohammad Shahidullah is a Bengali poet, notable for his romantic and revolutionary poetry. He is considered one of the remarkable poets of the 1970s. He was an ardent protester in the movements against the autocratic regimes after 1975.

However, the poem we translated together at Winchester Poetry Festival is about something closer to the heart. Rudra was unwell at the time he wrote ‘Going’, and the poem clearly looks ahead to the end of life and what could lie beyond. The poem could also be read as an elegy for his marriage: Rudra separated from his wife, noted feminist writer and poet Taslima Nasreen, in 1988, and we wondered whether there was an ironic or sarcastic edge to some of the lines.

Shamim suggested the poem’s tone is one of talking to yourself, and we tried to capture that in our word choices. We decided not to explain or translate the words for ‘shehnai’ (a musical instrument) and ‘palki’ (a litter or palanquin) in the poem, both of which are associated with weddings and funerals. We hope we did justice to this famous Bengali poet and friend of Shamim.

- Helen Bowell