Kathak
for Aditi Mangaldas
Deep within the eyes of a dancer,
irises and poems bloom.
On her cupped curled
kohl-lined eyelids, similes smile.
On each eyelash, metaphors arch,
waiting to flutter.
On her bosom’s electric-silk fabric,
secret lyrics are bloused.
Her limb’s slender extension-tips
decant arias — thumris sing, soar.
Her balletic grace, liquid —
she dances on water, always afloat.
Even Khusro and Kabir —
stunned, tongue-tied — searchingly
compete to compose couplets
for this dancer’s next movement.
Pupils wide-eyed,
she cajoles, seeking her lover —
hidden in the dancer’s heart,
the beloved quietly resides.
Balance
for Akram Khan
You sculpt air, creating
shapes in black — unstitching
coal-dark diorama drapes.
Your outstretched limbs
and fingers
trace lines and curves —
deft as a seasoned seamstress,
in translucent slow-motion —
fragile and delicate
like season’s first snowflakes.
A melange of poise,
posture and perfect pitch —
the arched brown-glaze
of your pate and skin,
the deep gaze
of your kohl-lined eyes
sculpt a subtle abhinaya.
Rest is all flourish, drama.
New idiom, grammar —
clipped accent and the lyric
assonance of Bangla DESH,
merge beautifully.
Fluid, organic language —
a unique signature,
your own dance-bhasha
coalesce quietly.
Desire, ecstasy, transcendence —
pupil, iris, retina — focussing
balance — intersecting
perfectly, on solar-plexus axis.
Apparition
for Mavin Khoo
An apparition
in perfect cruciform —
paced in measured
slow-motion — Shaolin
monk retraces
Buddha’s Indian soul.
Little Siddhartha
draped in white
on white — others
robed in colour-solids —
red, blue, green,
yellow, beige, orange —
make beautiful
large claw-like arcs,
arching their bodies —
balletic, frenzied —
freeze-frame
choreographed motion.
In a moment of
madness, in a moment
of frenzy, there is
stillness, peace, calm.
The spotlights
flare out, casting
celestial halos
on ordinary things.
Fusion of everyday
with the unusual
and spiritual
making you glow —
an aura captured
permanently
as light’s trickery —
dancer’s lissome grace.
Sudeep Sen is an award-winning poet, editor and translator of over 25 books including, most recently, Fractals: New and Selected Poems I
Translations 1980-2015 (Gallerie) and EroText (Vintage: Penguin Random House)