Translated from original Bengali by Saikat Guha
He is my husband, it is acclaimed that he is my
Master, owner, lord, etc., etc.
The society accepts he is my only god.
My unworthy husband has learnt
The familiar rules of how to rule.
He craves very much to go to Heaven walking on the cloudy path
And wants fruits, coloured wine and delicious food
He longs for
Enchanting figure of fairies to eat and lick and suck.
I have nothing except evil in my fate
I spend my days giving wood into the fireplace of this life,
In the next life I see my unable husband ecstatic in seventy-seventh love-making.
I am alone, in the beautiful garden of Heaven I an alone
Seeing the blind filthiness of man
I, a chaste, pure woman, burn within myself in the infinite fire of Hell.
Note:
Taslima is a Bangladeshi writer who was banished from her country because of her continuous attack on the rules of Islam which deny women's emancipation in personal columns and her protest against oppression on Hindus in Bangladesh in the novel 'Lajja' (Shame), which portrays the oppression on Bangladeshi Hindus following the destruction of Babri Mosque in India by an orthodox Hindu group. She is a staunch advocate of feminism and her works, translated in more than 15 languages, have won critical acclamation worldwide. In this poem she portrays a housewife's sad plight in the house of her tyrannic husband. The woman suffers more from the hypocrisy of her husband, or rather men in general, than her being physically tortured.
He is my husband, it is acclaimed that he is my
Master, owner, lord, etc., etc.
The society accepts he is my only god.
My unworthy husband has learnt
The familiar rules of how to rule.
He craves very much to go to Heaven walking on the cloudy path
And wants fruits, coloured wine and delicious food
He longs for
Enchanting figure of fairies to eat and lick and suck.
I have nothing except evil in my fate
I spend my days giving wood into the fireplace of this life,
In the next life I see my unable husband ecstatic in seventy-seventh love-making.
I am alone, in the beautiful garden of Heaven I an alone
Seeing the blind filthiness of man
I, a chaste, pure woman, burn within myself in the infinite fire of Hell.
Note:
Taslima is a Bangladeshi writer who was banished from her country because of her continuous attack on the rules of Islam which deny women's emancipation in personal columns and her protest against oppression on Hindus in Bangladesh in the novel 'Lajja' (Shame), which portrays the oppression on Bangladeshi Hindus following the destruction of Babri Mosque in India by an orthodox Hindu group. She is a staunch advocate of feminism and her works, translated in more than 15 languages, have won critical acclamation worldwide. In this poem she portrays a housewife's sad plight in the house of her tyrannic husband. The woman suffers more from the hypocrisy of her husband, or rather men in general, than her being physically tortured.
