Bengali Poetry - Where the mind is without Fear

Paagla Dashu

.............................. ......

Hyderabadi

Thank you. Inspires every time you read it or hear it.

Are there any websites that have quotes from Swami Vivekananda and Rabindranath Tagore you can recommend?

edwardseco

There is also erotic Bengali poetry not that I read that sort of thing..

terra1

when I was in Kolkota last year I stopped into Rupa & co, near the University, and picked up a great book on "Bengali poetry since independence," edited by Prabal Kumar Basu. It’s a great collection of poets covering a pretty diverse time and group of folkz up to late 1990's. post-Tagore poetics.

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terra1

the bells never stop in varanasi



everyone's dying
everyone’s dying to die
everyone's in my way
on my way to die
it's too hot and dusty to die
I am eating the ashes of the dead
I am eating the exhaust of cars
I am dying to die
I am an image sacrifice
I am looking for a boat to take me to heaven
namaste
your boat has bad karma
out of the way
I am burning inside of shame
I am at the seat of the ash
of time
of guatama
of a boat to nowhere
burning inside
I am the end of time
shiva orange
rat queen
goddess of money
sleeping in time to die at the hands of doms
sunrise to sunrise from the beginning of time
alone at the end of time
rowing nowhere to wash my soul
lost in serpentine alleys and back ways
amongst the amputees and water buffalos
amongst entrepreneurs that will cut your throat
amongst the dust breathing souls
looking in the eyes of the ones
looking back
for anything
not burning

wonderwomanusa

Thank you, Paagla Dashu. Lovely stuff!

Even the Bengalis writing fiction are poets ... I've just finished Bharati Mukerji's THE TREE BRIDE, and she introduces us to a strange and wonderful Bengal.

sadhuji

the more i see of you, the more i am surprised. you are just great. apnaar tulana hoi na, bishwas karoon!

being an addict of the pen, i have, at times tried my hand at weaving rhymes into patterns. unfortunately, i was probably too advanced for my time!

machadinha

Paagla, that last one (and some of the earlier stuff) was just beautiful. I can't judge the originals sadly, but very evocative. Are you in the business of translating? Together with an editor perhaps you might really want to set up a project, you seem passionate enough about it. You could do me a personal favor by publishing a book of translated Baul songs really, it's very hard to find good material about, let alone by, them. The spirit of these Bengali poems you've been posting seems to be not dissimilar somehow, and I know Tagore had a thing for them for instance.

Some notes if I may, you might want to go over the spelling one more time. That first line would flow better if it read "Why do you have to go today? Why can you not stay/Here for a few more days?" Finally, what does "to throw water on all our desires" stand for in the original exactly? Sounds like some localized expression, it doesn't come across as very natural. Might need transposing for another audience, unless there's good reason to leave it as it is.

Otherwise excellent work, keep it up. Maybe hook up with Sadhuji to get a project going I'd be willing to check the English but can't check back with the Bangla Oh and ps please make it a bilingual publication, the script is just too pretty.

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mahmud

The Rebel
- Kazi Nazrul Islam

(The poetry was the insperation for the rebels fighting againt the British to get freedom of India. That time british Govt. banned this poetry)

Proclaim Hero-
Proclaim: My head is held towering
Bows down the Himalayan peak, that at looking.
Say Hero-
Say: Tearing the firmament of the universe
Outstripping the Moon, the Sun and the Stars
Piercing the Earth and the celestial spheres
Penetrating through the Almighty's sacred throne
Risen have I, the wonder eternal of the God's universe.
With the mark of majestic might
The angry God on my forehead blazing bright!
Say Hero-
Say: My head is held ever towering!


I am irrepressible, imperious and brutal
I am the dancing lord of the great upheaval.
I am the cyclone, the devastation tremendous
I am terrible fear and the curse of the universe
I am turbulent, I crash everything
Wild I am, I trample under my feet all rules and binding.
I obey no law, but mine
I cause the loaded boats to capsize
I am torpedo, I am the dreadful floating mine.
I am the God Dhurjati-
The ill timed hair disheveled typhoon of disaster,
I am The Rebel the rebellious son of the global mother.
Say Hero-
Ever towering is my head!


I am the hurricane, I am the whirlwind
I smash everything on my path and leave behind.
I am the dance-insane rhythm
I dance on, with my own beat
I am the heart liberated wit.
I am the different musical modes
I rock, I roll, on move I startle
I whistle and swing on sharp notes.
I do whatever this mind wants whenever
I embrace the enemy and fight the death as a warrior.
I am pestilence, the global terror
I am the death of the dictator
I am warm and restless forever.
Say Hero-
Ever high is my head!


I am wine intoxicating
The glass of my heart is ever filled
With the wine sparkling.
I am the flame of the sacrificial fire
I am the God of fire, who keeps it burning.
I am the sacrifice, I am the priest, I am the fire.
I am creation, I am devastation
I am habitation, I am the ground of cremation.
I am the son of Indrani - the queen of the heaven
The Moon on my arm and the Sun on my forehead have risen.
In one hand of mine is the flute tender
The war bugle I hold in the other.
I am the Black-throated
Having the poison churned up from the weeping sea
I am the lord Bomkesh
I hold the bridle of the Ganges-stream with me.
Say Hero-
Ever towering is my head!


I am a saint, a soldier of music
I am the prince in disguise
With the dress of a hermit-mystic.
I am a Bedouin, a Chengis the brute
It is none, but me, I salute.
I am thunder
From the God 'Iswan's pipe, I am the mystic 'Omker'
Alas! from the bugle of 'Israfil', I am the roar danger.
I am Bishyamitra's disciple, Durbasha the furious
I am the fury of forest fire
I will burn to ashes this universe.
I am the heart opening laughter
I am the great anti-creation terror
I am the Eclipse of the twelve Suns of the final disaster.
Seldom I am quiet
Seldom restless and wild, I am the blood-youth
I snatch the God's pride.
I am the breath of typhoon, the ocean's roaring rave
I am radiant and flashing
I am the murmur of stream, the swing of music of the wave.


I am the unbraided hair of a virgin
The flame of her arresting gaze
I am the tender heart's love of a lotus sixteen.
I am the unconcerned mind of the indifferent
I am the sigh in the widow's heart, rending constant.
I am the accumulated anguish of all the homeless sufferers
The agony of the humiliated hearts
I am the bitter sorrows of the estranged lovers.
I am the distressed cry of a heart rending
I am the first touch of a virgin trembling
I am the heart throb of a passionate kiss stolen
I am the secret lady-love's glance twinkle
Her bashful sidelong look
I am the love of a maiden fickle
Her bracelet's sweet jingle.
I am the eternal child, the everlasting youth
I am the scarf of a village maid, afraid of her budding youth.
I am the Northern breeze-
From the Malabar range the mode 'Purabi' unconcern
I am the deep notes from a bamboo flute of a poet pedestrian.
I am the great summer thirst, I am the blazing Sun's furies
I am the murmuring desert spring-
I am the chiaroscuro of an oasis.
I rush forth as a crazy with bursting laughter
Oh! I know myself today, all the barriers are broken forever.


I am the rise, I am the fall, I am the consciousness in the soul unconscious
I am the triumphal flag of humanity, over the arch of the universe.
I rush like the clapping storm, holding the heaven and earth in hands
The flying horse and the horse of 'Indra'-the King God are my mounts


I am the volcano in the bosom of earth, the submarine fire
The fire of the universal annihilation
I am the under-earth drunk on tumultuous sea of fire.
Riding on the lightning, I fly with the joy profound
I instill panic and cause sudden earthquake in the world around.


I catch hold the hood of 'Basuki' the snake-king
I clasp the heavenly angel Gabriel's fiery wing.


I am a heavenly child, I am restless, I am impudent
I tear with my teeth the Mother-earth's garment.
I am the flute of Orpheus
I cause the heaving sea sleepy
With a kiss of sleep, I send the world in drowse.
I am in bondage of the tune of flute
I am the God Krishna's flute.
When I fly across the space with great anger
The trembling seventh hell, extinguishes in fear
I carry the revolt in the world all over.

I am the monsoon rain-flood of erosion
Sometime I fill the earth with adoration
Sometime I cause the awful destruction.
I will snatch the twin girls
From the bosom of God 'Vishnu' who sustains the creation.
I am injustice, I am meteor, I am the Saturn
I am the burning Comet, the venomous hood of annihilation.
I am the goddess 'Chandi' with the severed head
I am the war-loving cause of the dead.
Sitting in the hell of fire
I smile the smile of a flower.


I am earthly, I am spiritual
I am ageless, undecaying and immortal.
I am the terror of men, Gods and monsters
I am the invincible power of this universe.
I am the lord of the lords, 'Vishnu' the Supreme Being.
Frantically I move around the heaven the hades and the earth churning.
[**Two lines here from the original Bangla text seems to have been omitted here in the translation by the translator.; i.e. "I am mad, I am mad !!! / I now know myself and all my shackles and constraints have evaporated !!"**]


I am the battleaxe of God 'Parshuram'
I shall exterminate the warriors
And bring the noble peace to this universe.
I am the plough on the shoulders of 'Balaram'
I shall uproot the subject-world with ease
In the new creation of joy and peace.
I the Great Rebel, shall be quiet on that day
When the oppressed people's wail on the sky and air will not resound
The tyrant's dreadful sword will not flash on the battle ground
I, the Rebel, tired of battle, shall be quiet on that day.


I am a Rebel 'Vrigu'-
I mark my footprint on the chest of the creator God
I shall cut open the heart of the grief inflicting whimsical lord.
I am the Hero, Rebel – eternal -
Rose above the universe alone
My head is ever Monumental.

machadinha

And wow, Mahmud! Where did you get this? I need to let this sink in but I can see why the British would have banned it haha -- and why the Bengali resistance was said to have some interesting anarchist and tantric streaks!

Impressive!

mahmud

To read Nazrul's poetry, you must know something about him :

When some one talks about Bangla literature, first of all two names come in front of us, Rabindranath and Nazrul. Kazi Nazrul Islam is popularly known as rebel poet (Vidrohi Kabi). He was an exceptional talented person in bangla literature.

When still a school student in his teens Nazrul joined the newly recruited Bengali regiment (1916) and sent to Mesopotamia some months before the armistice. The resiment was not given a chance to face battle but all the same Nazrul got his fill of the fighting gusto which later-found expression in poetic effusion and warmth. His first two significant poems, Pralayollas (Exhilaration at the Final Dissolution) and Vidrohi (Rebellion)appared early in 1922 and his furst book of poem Agnibina (The lute of fire)was out before the year was over. The book was received with an enthusiasm never experienced in India before or since. After he joined the Kollol group and wrote mostly deft and pungent verse and songs galore.

Nazrul Islam wrote a good numbers of valuable poems, songs, novels, dramas. He had a good command on classic indian song. He could sing, recite and act with considerable proficiency.

Nazrul was an emotional soul, but his emotion was unstable and volatile. Those who came in personal contact with him were moved by his irresistible enthuasiasm and sincerity. But his literary output falls far short of his merit, except the early poems in Agnibina. After Agnibina his best known books of poems and songs are Dolonchampa(1923), Biser Bansi (The poisonous flute, 1924), Bhangar Gan (Songs of break-up, 1924), Puber Haoya (The east wind 1925) and Bulbul(1928).

mahmud

Hi Pagla Dasy,

The poetry was traslated by Mr. Rezaul Karim Talukdar, a Nazrul Researcher.

Paagla Dashu

mahmudbhai,

Thanks

and thats "Paagla Dashu" - am immortal character created by Sukumar Roy - author of "Abol Tabol" and father of Satyajit Ray.

Paagla Dashu

And oh sadhuji,

"apnaar" noi - preferably "tomaar" - "tor" will also do!

mahmud

Pagl Dashu,

Yes, now I can recall. I read a book of Pagla Dashu (Probably Best of Pagla Dashu). Very nice, humorous.