Gabriel Rosenstock & Debiprasad Mukherjee: Mural World

Debiprasad Mukherjee, Mural World - The Culturium

DEBIPRASAD MUKHERJEE

Life is always like a paintingyou draw, you erase … Historically, people used painting as an abstract expression of moments lived. Paintings on walls across the globe continue to be the portraiture of people’s social structures, the mirrors which reflect their own stories, the impression of their own inner feelings.

Snapshots of various emotionslove and hate, failures and successes, ups and downs, dreams and nightmaresall culminate to evolve into a beautiful story, maybe knowingly, maybe unknowingly. Yet the painter remains anonymous, the faces remain unknown. Different pictures emanate different tunes, which mingle into a single music called life.

Life is nothing but a bouquet of moments and these murals around the world are nothing but snapshots of some of these precious times. People do not paint a wall; they paint their lives. They write their personal diaries on the wall, which they cannot say in words, to the entire world.

(Photographs by Debiprasad Mukherjee, haiku in English and Gaelic by Gabriel Rosenstock)

Metonymic moments

looking / not looking
hearing / not hearing—
look now

féachaint / gan féachaint
éisteacht / gan éisteacht—
féach anois

Debiprasad Mukherjee, Mural World - The Culturium

it’s a world of shutters
and yet …
birds sing

is domhan comhlaí é
ina dhiaidh sin is uile …
canann éin

Debiprasad Mukherjee, Mural World - The Culturium

how many mothers
have I had—
oh, dear mothers!

an mó máthair
a bhí agam—
ó, a mháithríní!

Debiprasad Mukherjee, Mural World - The Culturium

dreams of our youth …
scraps and bundles
on nameless streets

aislingí ár n-óige
ina gclimíní …
sráideanna gan ainm

Debiprasad Mukherjee, Mural World - The Culturium

this city!
just look at them all—
peacocks

an chathair seo!
féach orthu go léir—
péacóga

Debiprasad Mukherjee, Mural World - The Culturium

entangled mysteries
of the universe …
a beard

mistéirí aimhréidhe
na cruinne …
féasóg

Debiprasad Mukherjee, Mural World - The Culturium

what do they know
do they know anything—
those waiting to be born

cad tá ar eolas acu
an eol dóibh faic—
iad siúd nár saolaíodh fós

Debiprasad Mukherjee, Mural World - The Culturium

bless us, o Lord
and these
Thy gifts

beannaigh sinn, a Thiarna
beannaigh ár mbia
is ár ndeoch

Debiprasad Mukherjee, Mural World - The Culturium

evening …
the loneliness
of our fading footsteps

tráthnóna …
uaigneas ár gcoiscéimeanna féin
ag dul i léig

Debiprasad Mukherjee, Mural World - The Culturium

face of a stranger …
a stranger within
awakes

aghaidh strainséara …
dúisítear strainséir
istigh

Debiprasad Mukherjee, Mural World - The Culturium

pedestrians …
all have a tryst
with destiny

coisithe …
coinne acu go léir
leis an gcinniúint

Debiprasad Mukherjee, Mural World - The Culturium

washed up
from some boundless ocean …
street child

tagtha i dtír
ó aigéan éigin gan chríoch …
páiste sráide

Debiprasad Mukherjee, Mural World - The Culturium

where his eyelashes fell
a tea plant sprung up …
Bodhidharma

san áit ar thit a chuid fabhraí
d’eascair planda tae …
Bodhidharma

Debiprasad Mukherjee, Mural World - The Culturium

looking for the face he had
before the world was made …
still looking

sa tóir ar a chuntanós
sularbh ann don domhan …
fós á lorg

Debiprasad Mukherjee, Mural World - The Culturium

side street …
blood of a sacrificed goat
begins to congeal

taobhshráid …
fuil an ghabhair íobartha
ag téachtadh

Edited by Silvia Pio, who has translated the haiku in Italian here.

The pictures and poems were originally published in https://www.theculturium.com/.

Debiprasad Mukherjee’s website
Gabriel Rosenstock’s blog

For other collaborations, click on authors’ names in the tags.