Songs of Lalon.

• Author: Das, Rahul Peter

A translation of selections from the songs of Lalan(3) by Brother James will serve to reinforce such notions. The author is aware of the sexual aspects of the Baul creed, expressly remarking on them (pp. xiv f.); however, one gains the impression that he has only a superficial knowledge of the matter.(4) In any case, the songs chosen, as well as their translation and the corresponding notes, seem to aim at blanking out completely this fundamental core of the Baul creed. But even so, some references pertaining to this core have escaped being filtered out, probably because they were not recognized. Thus the song "My whole day went by while I thought" (no. 79, on p. 81),(5) although it looks at first like a lament on the termination by death of a futile life bereft of transcendental meaning due to lack of a proper guide, seems on the level of code language to be a lament on unintended ejaculation (on "death," see Das, op. cit.,[section]40) due to improper guidance in the art of coitus reservatus in conjunction with breath control; cf., e.g., the skilfully ambiguous haoya bandha ha'le sab yabe biphale "when the wind stops all will become fruitless," sar bastu dhan ebar ha'lam re hara "the essential substance, the wealth(6) I have this time, oh, lost," etc.(7) These lines are, incidentally, translated here as, "When I die all will have become fruitless" and "(1 figured) I had lost substantial, real, valuable things this time." As these examples show, the translation, though on the whole not bad, is sometimes not exact enough; nevertheless, the gist of the songs (103 in number) is conveyed quite well, and the astute reader can, the nature of the song permitting, readily read between the lines (as one so often has to do in the case of Baul songs) even without knowing Bengali.(8) Moreover, one of the aims of this selection of...