[Spoken Word] I shall return to the banks of the Dhansiri river in the Bengal Perhaps not as a human, perhaps as an eagle or a mockingbird Perhaps as a crow of dawn in the land of harvest Floating through mist, arriving beneath the shade of a maple tree Or perhaps I will be reincarnated as a duck with red legs Or an anklet set for young girls' fair feet Swimming with swans the whole day, drifting, drifting through water's peanut-scented ponds I shall return loving the Bengal's rivers, fields, and farmlands To this green melancholic land of Bengal Got wet in the waves of the Jalangi river Perhaps you will look up and see a butterfly flying in the evening breeze Perhaps you will hear a barn owl calling from the branch of an oak tree Perhaps you will see a child scattering puffed rice grain on the front yard Perhaps on the waters of the Hudson river a boy swims with torn white sail Will row his boat when red clouds swim back to their nests Through the dark you will see the white herons And among them you will find me
