Translations
Winter 1999
To You, Rabindranath
From the Bengali. You too had debts, daughters to give in marriage, grief; you too had fevers, and market prices were just as rude to you. Hunger, love, critics’ gross, […]
Translations
Winter 1999
Left Behind
From the Bengali. A century’s dialecticpushed and pulled at us. Sweet grass was left, vacation spots were left, the amazing nightat the Dak Bungalow1 at Chunaru Ghat,2 the intractable moonlight […]
Poetry
Autumn 1994
Blue Pills
Translated from Bengali. “Whether you talk about women or Nature, nothing’s worth anything. Better to spend an evening with one or two like-minded friends in heart-to-heart talks which cure […]
Poetry
Autumn 1994
Film
Translated from Bengali. The cat jumps up on the corrugated iron roof. In the factory nearby, the screech of electric saws cutting iron all day long. The maniacal driver […]
Poetry
Autumn 1994
That’s Not for Puti
Translated from Bengali. The task of solving the world’s problems has not been assigned to you, Puti. Whether India should build the Bomb, when America will get out of […]
Poetry
Spring 1992
A Little Folktale
From the Bengali. The buffalo herder girl returns to grass shoots, an unseen meek animal on her back. The man who went away on stale feet has left his drying-cloth […]
Poetry
Spring 1992
Household Snake
From the Bengali. Now she has crossed the crouching grass, the murdered solitude. Sometimes a shol-fish leaps inside the net tied to her back. Now she enters a darkness more […]
Poetry
Spring 1992
Cow and Grandmother
From the Bengali. Like a heron she swam the paddy field. Now, wearing white rice sheaves, the girl about to fall thinks like a cow. A hornet comes flying and […]
Poetry
Spring 1992
About My Little Sister
From the Bengali. Under the thermometer, mother and doctor talk about the little beauty of my younger sister. The life which has moved toward cold mercury. The woodlands have risen […]
Carolyne Wright
Carolyne Wright has studied, written, and translated in Chile, Brazil, West Bengal, and Bangladesh on Fulbright and other fellowships. In 2018, she held a residency at the Instituto Sacatar in […]