De profundis
Md. Nurul Islam,
[Barabaria, Bagerhat: Friday, the 1st January 2016]
I am a fallen too though still alive unlike Binyon's,
Yet, I had to fall unfortunately as a fall-guy indeed
From the lofty bowsprit of the beloved service;
Shock enfeebled me so intensive as if hectic-languid.
Formidable fall gave birth to numerous sorts of agony,
Hail-fellow-well-met, no other than one came ahead
To attend the isolated star of ill-luck lamenting lonely,
Testifying by word, a friend in need is a friend indeed.
Horrible perils encompassed me like a helm-less tiny boat
That sails in the wavy sea with the gusty storm at dark night,
No sign of help from the watery region to the horizon abroad,
Nevertheless it's compelled to go ahead in a hopeless plight.
Circumstances pined away caliber converting to pillory,
The maxim, the wearer best knows where the shoe pinches,
Rang in petto, no excuse of wincing from the impenetrable territory
Rather march forward for filling up the exhausted dishes.
Trod all over but hardly came across a soul of empathy,
Non-stop endeavor carried on as the forces of the Trojan War,
Efforts seemed crack-up; in fine, got a glimpse of sympathy
Extended from a noble heart, publicly known as Zubair.
Once departed from the mother space truly unbound to reattach
As shooting star from the immense sky never rebound to parent,
Likewise the area of looking for the professional source of finance
Searched for hunting luck, never got as formerly excellent. 24
[All right reserved @Md. Nurul Islam]
Footnotes on De Profundis:
de Profundis / (Latin: deɪ prəˈfʊndɪs)
adverb: de Profundis 1.used to convey that one's most heartfelt feelings of sorrow or anguish are being expressed.
noun: de Profundis 1.a heartfelt cry of appeal.
Origin: Latin, ‘from the depths’, the opening words of Psalm 130.
Translate de Profundis to Bengali: গà¦ীর অন্তঃস্থল হইেত দুঃখজিনত আর্তনাদ বা আকুতি
Binyon's – Of Robert Laurence Binyon (1869-1943), the composer of the great poem "For The Fallen" published in The Times newspaper on 21st September 1914;
Fall-guy – a man who is entrapped to compensate for other's wrongdoings;
Bowsprit – a strong spar over the bows of a ship; Hectic-languid – consumptively spiritless; Agony – terrible anguish; pangs of death; Hail-fellow-well-met – highly acquainted and friendly person; By word – proverb.
Use of the word "helmless" in the poem is justified/clarified below:
References in periodicals archive:
And now my spirit sees The crack'd and founder'd navy of thy foes All helmless drift on shores how to like to these! The level, dark
Curnow's anthologies and the strange case of Walter D'arcy Cresswell :
To Sleep, I give my powers away; My will is bondsman to the dark; I sit within a helmless bark, And with my heart I muse and say: O heart, how fares it with thee now, That thou should'st fail from thy desire, Who scarcely darest to inquire, 'What is it makes me beat so low?
Calculating loss in Tennyson's In Memoriam:
Initially, the dreamy experiences have seemed as pointless as those of the poet's waking life, as when he reports a troubling and unhelpful dream in section 4: "To Sleep I give my powers away; / My will is bondsman to the dark; / I sit within a helmless bark"
Nevertheless – in spite of that; pined away – wasted away under pain, mental distress, unsatisfying longing, etc. Caliber - capacity;
Pillory – (figurative) to expose to ridicule; 1: a device formerly used for publicly punishing offenders consisting of a wooden frame with holes in which the head and hands can be locked
2: a means for exposing one to public scorn or ridicule
In petto – in own breast; Origin of in petto: Italian, literally, in the breast; First Known Use: circa 1674.
Wincing – shrinking back (in pain); Territory – field of activity; Exhausted dishes –empty dishes i.e., (figurative use) livelihood for the tired persons; Empathy – the power of projecting one's personality into another's and imaginatively experiencing his or her experiences i.e., power of realizing one's mourning, sorrow, and other experiences by heart.
Trojan War - In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably through Homer's Iliad. The Iliad relates a part of the last year of the siege of Troy; the Odyssey describes the journey home of Odysseus, one of the war's heroes. Other parts of the war are described in a cycle of epic poems, which have survived through fragments. Episodes from the war provided material for Greek tragedy and other works of Greek literature, and for Roman poets including Virgil and Ovid.
Crack-up – failure, un-success; Zubair – a reverend well-wisher as well as bosom friend serving in a reputed commercial entity wherefrom the poet eventually detached.
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