Tirthankar’s poem features a young sapling dancing near an ancient tree, symbolising growth, observation, and quiet mentorship across generations, resembling an old man, exclusively for Different Truths.

A sapling grows near the steps,
not far from a tree,
knotty and gnarled with age, observes
its childish ecstasy.
 
The sapling grows, uncared for,
like a kitten at play
near its mother, the old tree
watches night and day.
 
It lowers its hoary boughs
and blesses and sees it grow.
 
Happy and unruffled
by the gathering storm
the tree is like the old man
of a musty old-age hom

Picture design by Anumita Roy, Different Truths

Tirthankar Das Purkayastha

Tirthankar Das Purkayastha (b. 1956) is a Professor of English (retired) at Vidyasagar University, West Bengal, India. He has so far published three books of poetry in Bengali and many scholarly articles in academic journals. His translations of poems by Sunil Gangopadhyay have been published, with the poet’s approval, in South Asian Review and Indian Literature, a Sahitya Akademi journal. He has been regularly publishing poetry in all the leading journals of West Bengal.

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