Kurigram

Masud Khan

 

I’ve never been to Kurigram*.

In the dead of night, sleeping Kurigram steadily detaches itself

From the world that we know.

Ignores gravity completely

Taking off with its tiny kingdom

To some far off galaxy.

We keep looking then at the deep blue of the sky

While the tiny village becomes a speck up high.

For a long while Kurigram floats from one dome of heaven to another.

Till that star in the southern sky that pursued it so single-mindedly

Settles by its side and claims it as its own.

Then from this new luminary

A mild red vaporous smell wafts across the sky.

In that realm, in Kurigram,

The Kingfisher and the Pankouri* bird

Are stepbrothers.

When all the rivers of Kurigram become calm

The two brothers make the river their home

Squabbling with each other like families bickering!

When the river calms down again

The womenfolk, once bound by scriptural edicts,

Throng to the riverbank.

Breaking all barriers,

They sparkle like large resplendent crystals.

Suddenly, a lonely babui* bird, sans weaving skills,

Perched on a battered old mast, starts swinging,

Finally settling down on the translucent steel-foiled river water.

Kurigram, ah Kurigram!

Where Kurigram used to be

Is a dark and solitary space now.

Alas, I’ve never been to Kurigram

And I don’t think I ever will!

Click here to listen to an mp3 of Masud Khan reading Kurigram in Bengal

Notes:
Kurigram: An innocuous district town located in the northern region of Bangladesh
Paankouri: A species of bird, black in color, found in marsh and lakes and rivers.
Babui: A species of weaving bird.