POETRY / PODCAST
Bengali Literature / Bengali Poetry
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Inside the Dark Moon
— POEM by
Niloy Rafiq
— Recitation by
Helen Pletts
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No human settlement to my south, not even human scent;
At midnight, the sea wails pitifully in my slumber;
I lend my ear to listen to the unbearable life of a backward hamlet.
No lamp of wisdom is lit there on those hills;
Encircling the darkness lost in the school of the sea;
I’m a teacher in a fisherman’s hut;
Where the buds fall down prematurely, the bees descend;
On the face of flowers to show the enlightened way.
Come back, my friend, let the dark moon vanish.
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[Translated from BENGALI by Jyotirmoy Nandy
(Edited by Helen Pletts)]
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Niloy Rafiq
Niloy Rafiq was born in 6 August 1983 Maheshkhali, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Niloy Rafiq has been writing in the literary pages of local daily newspapers since his school days. Later, his poems were published in national and international literary magazines including various famous little magazines. So far, his notable poems have been translated into more than twenty foreign languages. Furthermore, his English poetry book “Sun Leaf” has already been published under “Stockholm Project 2033 Global Leader” by Amazon. Moreover, his second English translated poetry book “An Incomplete Kiss” has published in 2024 from Amazon.
The number of his poetry books written in Bengali languages are (Six) 6. Respectively, these are: 1) I, The Swan Float In Pure Sadness; 2) Thirst’s Eternity; 3) Salty Man’s Face; 4) Unknown Fire; 5) Adinath In Eyes; and 6) Wax Prayer Bowed In A Clay Body. His poetry has a magical, edgy feeling. Poet Niloy Rafiq is like a magician in the extraordinary weaving of words and rhythms.
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Jyotirmoy Nandy
Born in 1956, in Chattogram (Chittagong), Bangladesh, Jyotirmoy Nandy is a well-known name in the fields of journalism and literature of Bangladesh. Besides writing poems, he has translated the works of a good number of classic as well as contemporary poets and writers from different languages including English and Hindi. Also, he has authored more than one and a half a dozen books of his original works and translations.
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Helen Pletts
Helen Pletts is a British poet based in Cambridge. She is the English co-translator of Chinese poet Ma Yongbo 马永波. She is also a member of the committee for CB1 Poetry, the monthly poetry reading event in Cambridge. Her work has been translated into Chinese, Bangla, Greek, Vietnamese, Serbian, Korean, Arabic, Italian, Albanian and Romanian. Additionally, she and Ma Yongbo are joint creators of the ongoing ‘Ma Yongbo Poetry Road Trip – Summer Tour 2025’, for International Times.IT, currently at Volume 30.
Her poetry has five shortlistings for the Bridport Poetry Prize (2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024) as well; two longlistings for The Rialto Nature & Place Prize (2018, 2022); a longlisting for the Ginkgo Prize (2019); a longlisting for the National Poetry Competition (2022); 2nd Prize in the Plaza Prose Poetry Competition (2022-23), and a shortlisting for the Plaza Prose Poetry Competition (2023-24).
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