Two Sonnets
Original: Michael Madhusudan Dutta
Translation: Gazi Abdulla-hel Baqui
(The Bangla titles of the following sonnets are “Bangabhasha” and “Kabotaksha
Nod”. The great epic poet Madhusudan Dutta was the first composer and
introducer of sonnets in Bangla literature. Indeed, he was a massive genius.)
Bangla Language
O Bangla, varied gems in thy treasury;—
Yet, (I am a dullard!) I neglect it,
I falling in greed for others’ riches made travells
To alien countries, practised begging in evil hours!
Spent a long time rejecting happiness!
Without sleep, body starved and mind,
Absorbed in fruitless austerity hailing the inept;—
Dallying in moss; forgetting lotus gardens!
At last the goddess of family assured me in a dream,—
“O my son, heaps of gems in mother’s treasury,
Then why are you in beggarly state today?
So return, you dullard, you return home?”
I obeyed orders happily; I got in course of time
The storehouse of mother tongue, full of huge gems.
Kapotaksha River
You always touch and stir my mind, O river,
I always think of you in seclusion:
As always (people during night dream
Hear the illusive tunes of music) in your purling waves
I soothe my ears by this false pretension!—
I have seen in many countries crowds of rivers,
But whose water can quench my thirst for affection?
You are like the flow of milk in motherland’s breasts!
Will we be able to meet again? – As time glides on,
Like a subject to pay to your king sea
Your water as tax: you will sing out this request
Desirously to the ears of dear Bangla people
That in this foreign land your name I get lovingly immersed in
And that your name has been pronounced in Bangla music!
Biographical Information
Dr. Gazi Abdulla-hel Baqui, poet, writer, translator, and a university professor, has already authored twenty books and a great number of poems, (including haiku and rubaiyat), articles and stories have been published in different national and local and online Dailies, Magazines, Journals, Periodicals etc. Besides being awarded internationally for his poetic accomplishments, he has many a time been honored by different organizations of Bangladesh for his contribution to literature, education and research. A solo cassette album of his eleven poems called `Visions’ and his poems in some anthologies have been published by The National Library of Poetry, Maryland. Oddball Magazine, English Teaching Forum, Poetry.com etc.have also published his poems. His prize-winning poems on peace have been published in Official Catalogues by Cultura-e-Societa, Torino, Italy. His poems generally deal with peace and patriotism, eternal problems and lasting human conviction.
CNBangla/Jibon
