-Rabindranath Tagore
O Boishakh, the speechless sage,
From which fathomless depth do you find your verse.
Slow moving cloud arrives casts pleasant shade
Cools the radiant sky overhead.
Displayed on your chest is the accomplishment of scary meditation,
You prepare a place for it to settle, light up the holy fire.
O unforgiving, you had looked up
With your blood-shot eyes and annihilating desire.
All your merciless bindings –
It appeared you would shoot in condemnation.
Suddenly your voice sounds hope,
You seem to shower elixir, compassionately, young and green.
– Translated by Anjan Ganguly
Proloyullas
The Ecstasy of Destruction
-Kazi Nazrul Islam
Proloyullas (The Ecstasy of Destruction or Destructive Euphoria), also known after its first line as Tora sob joyodbhoni kor is a popular revolutionary Bengali song set to Dadra Tala, whose lyrics and tune were written by National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam in 1921. It is a revolutionary poem collected in early 1922 in the volume titled Agnibeena: the first anthology of Nazrul’s poems.
Come, make merry and rejoice.
There rages the summer storm
flying the flag of the New and the Young,
There comes he who had not come so long;
Dancing merrily
drink we will the joy of destruction.
There comes the Terrible
like the fierce executioner of eternal time
across the dark well of death
through smouldering smoke
lighting the torch of thunder.
There, listen to his ringing laughter.
Come, make merry and rejoice!
A dozen suns glitter and shine in his burning eyes
And the sorrows of the world cluster in his
tangled and disheveled hair.
A single drop of his tear
makes the seven seas roll and swell.
In his giant arms he crakles the mother-earth
and cries out, “Welcome, Destruction!”
Come, comrades, make merry and rejoice, ‘
Oh, have no fear!
The deluge will soon overtake the universe.
The final hour is fast drawing near.
The rotting old and the dying decrepit
will now be wiped out for good.
Now at last at the end of the long night of darkness
The glorious dawn will come with a smile
in her soft and tender dress.
Look, there the young moon shines in his unkempt hair.
Welcome New Year
-Anis Fatema
Let us welcome the blessed shower,
The kindred spirit, with delicate desire.
Let us juxtapose the melodious tale,
Of the latest thoughts, of the newest spell.
Forgetting and forgiving the tears in sight,
Let them become the dreams of previous night.
Let us pave a way in front our dreams,
Leaving behind the sarcasms, the heartrending screams.
Let us celebrate the moments of incarnation,
To reach the life of desired destination.
Let the angelic poet take a new birth,
To sing in harmony with the monsoon on earth.
Plucking up the roses of hopes from the past,
Let the gardener plough, let him break his fast.
The land of ours awaits for an untold shining story,
Let’s enchant the revealed words to rejoice the glory.
We embrace the New Year and get spellbound,
It arrives with message of freedom all around.
