Here’s a poignant poem about remembrances and longing, by Tirthankar, exclusively for Different Truths.

Don't say that you chose
To leave unsaid
And brush aside with a swing of your hand
Words that chose to be dead.

Now they lie like putrid flesh,
Stinking in a closed-down hell,
Ovens cold, the extinguished fire
Scattering ashes of the beautiful seashells

Once worn around the neck
Of a lady on whose ivory arms
Birds sat and pecked,
Fearless, unharmed.

Round the corner of a lonely street
Words lie like beads unseen
Which you left unsaid
But cannot remember when.

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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