Under the Thin Layers of Light / Hassanal Abdullah
Hassanal Abdullah is a phenomenon. Among today’s writers from Bengal, he is perhaps unique in his ability to cross geographical, linguistic and literary borders. He does so with the ease of a petrel crossing storm-tossed seas. With awesome speed, he masters literary genres as far apart as the sonnet and the epic. Now, with the publication of this edition of Under the Thin Layers of Light, both English and Spanish readers will be able to examine in not-so-thin layers of light the works of this phenomenal Padma-Hudson poet. —Jyotirmoy Datta
Under the Thin Layers of Light is the 30th title of Darklight’s bilingual English-Spanish poetry series. It has the original prologue by Jyotirmoy Datta to the 2015 Bengali-English edition, and a beautiful cover and interior illustrations by the Mexican graphic artist Alonso Venegas.
THE CACOPHONY OF THE GUNFIRE
Suddenly, he jumped into the river
Suddenly, he managed to jump into the river
Suddenly, at that devastating moment,
he jumped into the river
Suddenly, at that fearsome, devastating moment,
he jumped into the river
Suddenly, with a horrible wound, at that fearsome, bloody,
devastating moment,
he jumped into the river
The surging waves turned red with his blood
The cacophony of the clattering gunfire
was still vibrating in the air—
and the constant cry of the wounded and dying.
Translated from the Bengali by the poet
