The Cat

Utpal Chattopadhyay

Original: “Beral” by Jibanananda Das

Translation: (Utpal Chattopadhyay)

All day long I keep bumping into this cat;

In the shade of a tree, in the sun, in the congregation of brown leaves.

I find him busy as a bee,

inside a skeleton made of white clay

preoccupied in contemplation over his soul,

after it has successfully negotiated a few fish bones.

Even then, he finds time to scratch his claws against the Mayflower tree;

he follows the sun the whole day.

Here he is one moment,

out of sight at the very next.

 

I have seen him in autumn evenings

affectionately rubbing his white paws

against the soft saffron sun.

Then he caught little balls of darkness with his paws

and spread them around the earth.