O, how does a strange bird flit in and out of the cage
Should I catch it, with my mind I would shackle its feet.
Eight rooms and nine doors, latticed windows here or there
And in the main chamber above, a hall of mirrors.
A twist of fate, why else would the bird behave so strange
Breaking out of the cage, it flies to an unknown forest.
My mind, you pine for your cage of fragile wood –
Fakir Lalon laments, it may collapse any day.
This is one of the best-known songs by Lalon Fakir (viz. 1774/5-1890), the renowned seer of Kushtia (today in Western Bangladesh).
The cage – This seems to be a metaphorical reference to the human body. To go by the conventions of Baul dehatava (doctrines of the body), the doors and windows may refer to the various sense organs and orifices of the body. The ‘bird’ seems to refer to an elusive spirit or soul within that cannot be pinned down to the body, and which the mind (mon – also translatable as heart) seeks to control and shackle without much success.
Translator/Transcriber: Aniruddha Dutta