Tag: Bidrohi Kobi

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Nazrul Translations

A Garland for Your Chignon

Nazrul’s lyrics of Mor Priya Hobe Eso Rani (My Sweetheart, Be My Queen) has been translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam

From Public Domain 
MY SWEETHEART, BE MY QUEEN

My sweetheart, be my queen!
Let me make a garland of stars for your chignon.
Dear girl, your ears I’ll adorn
With the spring moon’s third visitation.
Your throat, dear girl, I’ll deck with a pair of dangling swans.
I’ll make a ribbon too to tie your cloud-coloured disheveled hair
Out of the lightening in the spring moon’s third visitation!
A paste blended from moonlight and sandalwood 
Will be your body’s balm. The red of the rainbow
Will be the lac-dye used to color your feet
The seven notes of my song will compose 
Your bridal chamber’s decor
While my muse’s bulbul bird will sing a song for you—
in full-throated ease!

Click here to listen to a rendition of the song in Bengali by contemporary artiste, Srikanto Acharya.  

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).

PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL

Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles

Click here to access Monalisa No Longer Smiles on Amazon International

Categories
Nazrul Translations

When Flowers Bloom Spring…

Nazrul’s Ashlo Jokhon Phuler Phalgun (When Flowers Bloom Spring) has been translated from Bengali to English by Professor Fakrul Alam

From Public Domain 
When flowers bloom spring, Gulbagh’s roses would rather leave.
On such a day though, why would one want to leave a friend behind?
Even before daybreak, a forlorn bulbul bird cried out in the flower garden,
Before their buds could bloom, flowers shed in the chilly breeze.
This is how it always was in old flower gardens! Men want fresh flowers,
But the cruel gardener keeps plucking away from the garden that is life!
The soil is where all golden body parts lie hidden, covered by dust,
Emperors and newly married brides too—everyone in the prime of life.
The world’s colourful blossoms may shed well before dusk descends
So sorry a sight it is to see souls leaving still young bodies to survive!   
Tread thoughtfully dear wayfarer, for you’ll be treading on dead flowers
As the earth’s pathways are always strewn with dust blowing from graveyards.
It’s time for you, Hafiz, to give up all worldly desire and attractions,
Time to leave home for a spouse in a faraway world calling out to you!


Click here to listen to a rendition of the song in Bengali by the late Feroza Begum (1930-2014) 

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).

PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL

Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles

Click here to access Monalisa No Longer Smiles on Amazon International

Categories
Nazrul Translations

I Sprinkle in the Sky…

Akashe Aaj Choriye Delam Priyo (I sprinkle in the sky) by Nazrul has been translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam

From Public Domain 
Dearest, I sprinkle in the sky my lyrics this day.
I’ve woven on my own a garland of songs
From the flowers produced by my words.
Pick it up if you can, please.
Let my tune’s rainbow be a transient joy,
Orchestrating my sense of loveliness, 
And embodying sweetness through the passions of its colours.
What does it matter if you fail to note 
The tears moistening my eyelids?
My voice quavers because of my tears!
Spreading across the lotus that is my heart,
Lyrics make the round, buzzing like a bee in flight.
Do taste my mind’s loveliness from that bee if you can!

Listen to the song in Bengali performed by the late Feroza Begum by clicking here.

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).

PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL

Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles

Click here to access Monalisa No Longer Smiles on Amazon International

Categories
Nazrul Translations

With a Garland of Tunes and Lyrics…

Nazrul’s Shoore O Baneer Mala Diye (With a Garland of Tunes and Lyrics) has been translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam.

From Public Domain 
With a garland of tunes and lyrics, you caressed me.
To my body and mind, you gave buds of affection.
Why, then, didn’t you instill love in my heart?
Having played the flute, where was it that you hid?
The flower that you had helped bloom is drying
And losing something dear. My soul cries out, alas!
If you wanted something so, why didn’t you take it?
Having hugged me tight, why did you leave me?
Tell me, what upset you? Why doesn’t joy stir me now?
Where is the sweetness and delight I once felt in my soul?
I must have misunderstood you completely
For surely you had come to make my love bloom.
Dearest, why didn’t you speak out at that time?
Why, why didn’t you hurt and correct me then?

You can listen to the Bengali rendition of this song by contemporary eminent singer, Ajoy Chakraborty, by clicking on this link.

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).

PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL

Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles

Click here to access Monalisa No Longer Smiles on Amazon International

Categories
Nazrul Translations

O Wayfarer, Wipe Your Tears by Nazrul

Nazrul’s Musafir, Mochh re Aankhi Jol (O wayfarer, wipe your tears) has been translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam.

Art by Sohana Manzoor
O wayfarer! Wipe your tears,
Return only with yourself. 
The flower blooming on its own
Shed all by itself.
O foolish one! So hapless is your state,
Will you now build your nest in water?
Thirsts are not quenched here
For this is no lake to allay thirsts.
Will the bokul that didn’t bloom in monsoon
Blossom when it’s winter?
On this path forever, errors shed
Covering the grove of frustration.
Oh poet! You’ve illuminated many lamps
With your own light
But your own revered Krishna hasn’t come
To light up the darkness pervading your world.

A rendition of the lyrics by Feroza Begum (1930-2014) in original Bengali

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).

PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL

Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles

Click here to access Monalisa No Longer Smiles on Amazon International

Categories
Nazrul Translations

A Love Song by Nazrul

Jani Jani Priyo, Ea Jebone  (I know my dear one, in this life) by Nazrul has been translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam

Art by Sohana Manzoor 
I know, know very well my dear one,
No desire of mine will ever be fulfilled
In my lifetime. Like a water-lily, I’ll shed
In a watery grave. Moon-like, from above
You’ll shed tears. Between us, my bride,
Forever will blow a wind of parting. Forever,
You’ll be heaving deep sighs.  I won’t get to hold
Or grip you close to the heart. And yet,
The moon keeps slandering the lotus. Far away
That you are, how does honey still gush from you?
Stay within my reach, dear night moon of mine,
Though so out of my grip and so untouchable!
My empty heart cries out with desert-thirst.
Everyone says I’m the one you love. And yet,
By your providing balm to that shameful act
My anguish at parting has become sweet tasting!
A rendition of Nazrul’s love song by Feroza Begum (1930-2014) in original Bengali

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).

PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL

Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles

Click here to access Monalisa No Longer Smiles on Amazon International

Categories
Nazrul Translations

Break All Shackles: Nazrul

Professor Fakrul Alam transcreates powerful lyrics by Kazi Nazrul Islam

From Public Domain

Smash the iron shackles of prisons.
Make them all disappear.
Free yourself from the shackle of worship.
Young ones—do what befits you best
Sounding horns signifying demolition,
Break through all Eastern ramparts.
Play music for the Supreme One.
Who’ll Lord over you? Dare to act kingly
Or threaten to punish you?
Who is truly free and really sovereign?  
Ha, ha, ha! I feel like laughing.
Will God Himself wear a noose? Destroyer!  
Who tipped the flame with such awful news?
Oh crazy, forgetful one, storm and rock prison bars.
Yank them with sudden force.
Pull, pull them with gale force.
Bear on your shoulder a kettle drum,
Beating it rhythmically, summon Death.
Let drumbeats bring it back to life!
Let’s see you shake the base of all forbidding prisons.
Kick them hard; break, break their locks. 
Burn, burn all prisons and do away with them!
A rendition of the song in Bengali from Coke Studio, Bangladesh

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).

PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL

Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles

Click here to access Monalisa No Longer Smiles on Amazon International

Categories
Nazrul Translations

The Path of Hope by Nazrul

Nazrul’s Lyrics translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam

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. 
Pictures from Public Domain

Generations after generations I’ve trod the path of hope.
Yet, O desert wayfarer, there seems to be no border in sight. 
Year after year have come and gone for someone like me.
When I tried quenching my thirst even as my eyes watered
Lighting up hope’s lamp futilely, mirages crowded my vision.
Hundreds of songs seemed to sing out of desert groves
Which once upon a time must have been part of the ocean.
Desert wayfarer that I am, I see its watery expanse in dreams
And think of the ocean’s bottom, where my craft had sunk—
A craft I was in with my mate whom I keep looking for now!

A Bengali rendition of the song by Feroza Begum (1930-2014)

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).

PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL

Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles

Click here to access Monalisa No Longer Smiles on Amazon International

Categories
Poetry

Therefore: A Poem by Sukanta Bhattacharya

Translated from Bengali by Kiriti Sengupta

Sukanta Bhattacharya
Sukanta Samagra

Sukanta Bhattacharya (15th August 1926-31st May 1947):  Called “Young Nazrul” and Kishore Bidrohi Kobi [1], Sukanta Bhattacharya died at the tender age of twenty of tuberculosis. He, like Nazrul, wrote poetry to protest the colonial atrocities. His poems describe the suffering of common people and looked forward to a world free of exploitation. His writings were anthologised in Sukanta Samagra (Complete Works of Sukanta, 1967), published posthumously, simultaneously in East Pakistan and West Bengal.

The once-paved paths 
 are now vitiated. 
    How can I endure 
       the trauma without 
         divine intervention? 

Death, death, everywhere... 

Life's earnings 
   must be renounced. 
    When the means 
      become futile, 
       they are best discarded like tattered rags

[1] Youthful Rebel Poet: Nazrul was called the rebel poet of Bengal. He wrote a poem called Bidrohi or Rebel and his poetry had been that of rebellion like Sukanta Bhattacharya’s.

Kiriti Sengupta has had his poetry featured in various publications, including The Common, The Florida Review Online, Headway Quarterly, The Lake, Amethyst Review, Dreich, Otoliths, Outlook, and Madras Courier. He has authored fourteen books of poetry and prose, published two translation volumes, and edited nine anthologies. Sengupta serves as the chief editor of Ethos Literary Journal and leads the English division at Hawakal Publishers Private Limited, one of the top independent presses established by Bitan Chakraborty. He resides in New Delhi. Further information is available at www.kiritisengupta.com.

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PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL

Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles

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Categories
Nazrul Translations

Nazrul Lyrics Translated by Fakrul Alam

Professor Fakrul Alam translates two songs by Nazrul on social isssues from Bengali

Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976)

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.

Arise O Woman
 
Arise, o woman, arise flaming!
Arise, daubing your forehead blood-red,
Everywhere unfold your flaming tongue.
Dance wildly—excited, inspired.
Arise, hapless, maligned snake,
Awake, kindling the world aflame!
Burn briskly, o fume-filled smoky one,
Arise, mothers, daughters, brides, wives, nieces.
Arise prostitutes, cast out, exiled ones
With the tidal force of the Ganges, arise,
Down-trodden ones. Streaking clouds with lightning
Arise, aroused by Durga, the ever-triumphant one.
‘Arise O Woman’ performed in Bengali 
Two Flowers on One Leafstalk 
 
Hindu and Muslim -- two flowers on one leafstalk --
Muslim its jewelled eyes, Hindu its heart and soul! 
In the lap of their mother, the same sky is reflected,
Where sunlight and moonlight alternately sway. 
Within their bosoms the same blood courses
While the same navel string binds the twain.
We breathe the same earth mother’s air
And drink the same earth mother’s water.
In her bosom, the same fruits and flowers grow.
In the soil of the land are burial sites quite akin --
Doesn’t matter if one is called Gore -- the other Shoshan!
We call out to our mothers in the same language.
We sing for them songs strung in similar tunes!
‘Two Flowers on one Stalk’ performed in Bengali

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).

PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL

Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles

Click here to access Monalisa No Longer Smiles on Amazon International