An Unexpected Meeting

Translation by Arunava Sinha
New Delhi, India

We met suddenly on a train

I hadn’t thought it possible.

I’d seen her over and over

In a red sari –

Crimson like a dahlia;

Today she was in black silk,

It covered her head in a cowl

Cupped her face, lustrous and fair like a lily.

She seemed to have enveloped herself

In a deep dark distance,

The distance to the edge of the mustard-fields

To the blue-grey of the sal wood.

My senses came to a sudden stop,

I knew her once, now she wore a stranger’s solemnity

Throwing aside her newspaper

She greeted me suddenly

Social mores could now be followed;

We began to converse –

‘How are you?’, ‘How is everyone?’

Etcetera.

She continued to gaze out of the window

As though she had overcome the contagion of intimacy

She answered in monosyllables,

Some, she didn’t even respond to.

Conveyed with an impatient wave –

Why talk of all this,

Silence is so much better.

I was on another bench with her companions.

After a while she beckoned with her finger.

Such boldness, I thought –

I sat down on the same bench.

Under the sound of the train

She said softly,

‘Please don’t mind,

Where’s the time to waste time!

I have to get off at the next station;

You’re going further,

We’ll never meet again.

So, I want your answer to the question

That hasn’t been answered all this time,

You’ll tell the truth, won’t you?’

‘I will,’ I said.

Still gazing at the sky outside she asked,

‘Are those days of ours that are gone

Gone forever –

Is nothing left?’

I was silent for a while;

Then I said,

‘All the stars of the night

Remain under the glare of the day.’

I felt doubtful, had I made it all up.

‘Never mind, go sit over there now.’

Everyone got off at the next station.

I journeyed alone. 

(Rabindranath Tagore)