I so love being forlorn, I so love being lonesome.
The object of my loneliness, after all, resides within my mind.
I love being alone, yes, I love this separation.
My beloved, the arsonist, sings and dances every day within my heart.
Never before did I imagine that separation could be this sweet.
My anguish adorns me in robes of ochre-
I douse the ochre in the golden hues of Spring.
The dictates of pain are not for me-
For me pain morphs into celebrations of color
O I so love solitude, I so love being lonesome. - Monish Chatterjee
This playful rejection of the anguish of separation from a beloved reminds us of such well-known Western numbers as the Statler Brothers' Flowers on the Wall or John Waite's I Ain't Missing You At All. There is clearly a thinly veiled cynicism in the lyrics, but in SDB's song we find several transformative metaphors (all his songs are absolutely rich with metaphors, incidentally) which include how the ochre colors of renunciation become transformed within the anguished heart by the uplifting basanti (golden yellow) colors of Springtime, which are very symbolic of an other-worldly bliss in Bengal. The sufferer of separation equally imagines that his beloved is the great arsonist who lights a fire in his heart- and yet her scorching absence transforms into ever-charming varieties of song and dance within his very being.
[1] Rajyeshwar Mitra, Agartalaye Sachin Dev Burman, Desh, vol. 62, no.5, Dec 1994.
[2] Ramaprasad Datta, ed. and author, Tripuraye Shatabdir Prabandhacharcha, 1985.
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