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    Parabaas : পরবাস : বাংলা ভাষা, সাহিত্য ও সংস্কৃতি
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  • Mortgaged to Shiva by Ramprasad Sen : Ramprasad Sen
    translated from Bengali to English by


    Mortgaged to Shiva by Ramprasad Sen
    Mortgaged To Shiva
    Ramprasad Sen



    What riches will you grant me?

    What wealth do you have to give?

    Your gracious glance,

    or the lotus of your feet?

    It's all mortgaged to Shiva!

    Is there any hope at all

    of getting your feet back from him?*

    Kali, try with all your might

    to extricate yourself -

    what good can it do worshipers

    if a holy icon drowns

    in its own vessel of offered milk?

    Even if you allowed me a share

    in the grace of your precious feet,

    it wouldn't be worth much

    since Father Shiva's exchanged

    his very own corpse

    for a stake in the same!

    But what of the son's right

    to a father's wealth?

    What will I get of that?

    Ramprasad says: I've been labeled

    an unworthy son.

    My legacy's been snatched.


    *To touch the Goddess' feet in supplication is to also receive her
    blessings. Kali stands on the corpse of her husband Shiva, so in the eyes
    of the petulant poet, the great "father god" has usurped the "grace of her
    lotus feet" from the rightful recipient, namely Ramprasad himself.



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