Astronomy is making the news these days, with the first picture of a black hole becoming public last month. So I thought of translating this little poem by Rabindranath Tagore this year on his birth anniversary, whose Bengali title literally translates to "astronomy." It is based on a dialogue between a little boy and his elder brother. Once I and my slightly older cousin brother recited this poem at an event back home in Hooghly. Those days almost seem like another life when I think about it.
So here's my translation of the poem, without much further ado. The illustration is my attempt at digital art using the Wacom tablet I impulse-bought last Thanksgiving.
Astronomy
~Rabindranath Tagore
All I said was, “In the evenings,
On the kadam tree
When the full moon gets entangled
And can’t get himself free
Could someone then
Catch and bring him in?”
Why did big brother, hearing that,
Laugh and tell me, “Brother,
A fool like you I’ve seen no other.
The moon stays very far
How can we even touch?”
I said, “Big brother, you
Surely don’t know much.
When our mother smiles at us
Through the window bars
Would you then say that mother
Lives very far?”
Even then he told me, “Brother,
A fool like you I’ve seen no other.”
Brother says, “Where will you get
Such a large snare?”
I tell him, “Why brother,
The moon is tiny there;
To grab him, my two
Little fists would do.”
On hearing that why did he
Laugh and tell me “Brother,
A fool like you I’ve seen no other.
If the moon came close to us
You’d see it’s immense.”
I say, “Hasn’t attending school
Given you any sense?
When mother, to kiss us
Bows down her head
Then, does her face look like
A huge thing by our bed?”
Even then he told me, “Brother,
A fool like you I’ve seen no other.”
(Translated by Sugata Banerji)
