Ghumiye Geche Shranto Hoea( Spent, He’s Fallen Asleep) was written and composed by Nazrul on the death of his friend, Rabindranath Tagore. Professor Fakrul Alam has translated the lyrics from Bengali.
Spent, my song’s bulbuli bird has gone off to sleep
While all of dusk’s fallen flowers look on wretchedly.
Singing at dawn, the bird would make flowers bloom
What prohibitory arrow could have silenced it so now?
Hair disheveled, a night queen weeps in the forest’s lap.
From tomorrow, alas, flowers will no longer bloom
Amidst these creeping plants. Whose sad breathing
Can be heard in leaf after leaf? Leaving its empty nest
My song bird too has flown away! No more do words
Pile up in my throat as before. No more will anyone
Be lured by the false light here—not even mistakenly!
Click here to listen to the song sung by the famed Feroza Begum.
Born in united Bengal, long before the Partition, Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976) was known as the Bidrohi Kobi, or “rebel poet”. Nazrul is now regarded as the national poet of Bangladesh though he continues a revered name in the Indian subcontinent. In addition to his prose and poetry, Nazrul wrote about 4000 songs.
Fakrul Alam is an academic, translator and writer from Bangladesh. He has translated works of Jibonananda Das and Rabindranath Tagore into English and is the recipient of Bangla Academy Literary Award (2012) for translation and SAARC Literary Award (2012).
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Click here to access Wild Winds: The Borderless Anthology of Poems
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