Talk to me, javas, talk to me - Kazi Nazrul Islam

Talk to me, javas, talk to me --
what austerities did you do to get Syama Ma's feet?
Torn from your stems on illusion's plants,
falling scattered to the ground at Her feet,
you got liberation
bursting open
beside yourselves with joy.
If only I could learn from your example
my life might bear fruit.
Thousands of sweet-smelling flowers bloom in the woods,
and they're all such beauties! So how come
you got Ma's feet?
You're just ignoran't javas!

Crimson like you at the Mother's feet,
when will they be flowers
offered to Her, blessed by Her?
When will they turn red
at the touch of Her feet?
When will they, just like you, blush scarlet --
these dull petals of my mind?

English version by
Rachel Fell McDermott

Kazi Nazrul Islam

Syama wakes on the cremation grounds - Kazi Nazrul Islam

Syama wakes on the cremation grounds
to take Her child
at the final hour
to Her lap.
The peaceful Mother sits on the pyre
in fire hidden by Her sari of love.
To hold him on Her lap
She left the Kailasa of Her joy, and
with blessings and fearlessness in Her hands
made the cremation grounds Her home.
Why fear this place
when you'll sleep peacefully at the Mother's feet?
Who dies ignited by the flames of this world,
to him the Mother calls:
"Come to My lap, come to My lap."
To lull you to sleep, Oh Wearied by Life,
Ma takes you to Her lap
disguised as death.

English version by
Rachel Fell McDermott

Kazi Nazrul Islam

Song of Dawn - Kazi Nazrul Islam

It's dawn,-
open the door,
wake up, Khukumoni!
The jasmine flowers
from their vines
are calling you to come running,
wake up, Khukumoni!
Uncle Sun
is crawling out
all dressed in a crimson shirt,
listen -- the gatekeeper
is singing
his song, "Rama hoi."
The birds
are leaving their nests
to fly in the sky,
listen to them
singing continuously,
filling the morning air!
The restless
Bulbul birds
whistle from flower to flower,
this time,
this time,
Khukumoni will open her eyes!
Setting the rudder,
hoisting the sail,
the boat begins its journey,
this time,
this time,
Khukumoni has opened her eyes!
Lazy
she's not--
she's an early-riser,
that's why
Brother Moon
gives a teep everyday for her!
Up
and running--
all the little boys and girls,
listen to them
babbling
about who woke up first!
Night's
wash up
wake up, Khukumoni!
With a hymn
let's begin
asking for a blessing from God!

English version by
Sajed Kamal

Kazi Nazrul Islam

O Nightingale! - Kazi Nazrul Islam

In Garden Plot, O Nightingale, do not
rock upon this flower stem today;
For these buds swinging in deep sleep,
Unbroken dozing slumber lay.

Oh how north winds blow now!
Empty branches bow, day and night!
Absent is the southern breeze,
singing melodies, honey bees are in dismay!

When will that virgin flower
sunder sleeps power, opening wide in blossom?
By morning cheeks in red, breaking slumber's stay.

Springtime wakes the bud wide,
breaking each side, bringing a flowering flood.
Flowering bud's, parting lips pursed
into laughter burst, dimpled cheeks display.

Oh poet! you forgot the scent, so
sinking down low, fail to find that shore.
The flower in past, that had filled your breast,
Now, o'erflowed it lies, 'neath a flood of watering eyes.

English version by
John Thorpe

Kazi Nazrul Islam

Mother, i may have been a naughty child - Kazi Nazrul Islam

mother, i may have been a naughty child,
but i am your child nevertheless!
you own the world, mother, you are the queen of the world,
and look at me, i go about in the habit of a beggar.

you are bent on neglecting me,
but i love you anyway, it is you,�only you that i call upon.
just as a child runs to his mother even after she has scolded him,
so do i run to you.

how could you push me away from you, mother,
you are my mother, are you not?
oh, why did you cast me away, mother,
leave me to play in the dust?
i would have been a better child,
had only you been a little more kind to me.

i am sad and angry, mother,
i shall go away anywhere my eyes and my feet take me to.
i do not care now whether i live or die now, mother,
i am going away.

Kazi Nazrul Islam

Let's Meet Hereafter! - Kazi Nazrul Islam

We will meet again in the life Hereafter;
Here, please, forget me with a simple laughter.
Anything that remained unsaid,
I won't say; Let you also keep silence;
If I offer my love, turn me away;
If I persist, hurt me, in pretense.

Dream is broken abruptly here,
The evening's bud sheds in the dawn;
The heart dries up before love is savored;
The ambrosia here has the taste of poison.

In separation here, heart longs in agony;
When together, quickly we go apart;
Where the fountain of love is never dry,
In that everlasting Garden, remember to seek my heart.

English version by
Mohammad Omar Farooq

Kazi Nazrul Islam

He who has seen my Mother - Kazi Nazrul Islam

He who has seen my Mother
can he hate his brother?
She loves everyone in the three worlds;
her heart cries for all.
With her there's no difference of caste,
no distinction between high and low;
all are the same.
If she sees a Candala
like Rama with Guhak
she clasps him to her breast.
Ma is our Great Illusion, highest Nature, and
Father our highest Self;
that's why one feels love for all
we feel love for all.
If you worship the Mother
hating her children
she won't accept your puja;
the Ten-Armed One will not.
The day we forget the knowledge of difference
on that day only
will Ma come home to us.

English version by
Rachel Fell McDermott

Kazi Nazrul Islam

Come silently like the Moon - Kazi Nazrul Islam

O, my love
Come silently in the middle of the night
As gliding moonlight

With your tender touch
Bring sweet dreams to my eyes

O, my love, never again
I will need to open the door,
Come quietly through the door of my heart
Be there forever in my sweet memory

Come as the fragrance of un-blossomed flowers
Swaying in the evening breeze
Sing out my name over and over again
Like love-stricken evening bird in the wilderness

Come as tear drops in my eyes
Whisper in my ears like soothing tune of flute
Come as my lost love
O my ever lost love
Be there as eternal pain in my heart.

English version by
Gulshan Ara

Kazi Nazrul Islam

The Rebel - Kazi Nazrul Islam

Bidrohi

This is a poem by the poet laureate of Bangladesh.
I can't get over how Rock & Roll his words are.
It's Like Sabbath meets T Rex meets The Clash.
Posted by Richard Bacchus at Wednesday, June 13, 2007

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 startleI 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.

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

Kazi Nazrul Islam

The Dawn of New Creation - Kazi Nazrul Islam

(Aaj Srishti Shukher Ullashey)

Today at the Nativity of New Creation,
A thrill of joy runs riot in me,
My face is aglow, my eyes are radiant,
My blood boils and bubbles and dances in ecstasy
Today at the Baptism of New Life!



Today in the imprisoned well of my heart –
A deluge arises and the flood-tide violently
breaks through the barriers.
There comes smile, there are tears,
Liberty appears, fetters follow,
I learn to speak, today, my bosom is
split up, there comes the joy of
my bitter sorrow,
Lo! There comes the sorrow of
a forlorn heart –
Today at the Baptism of a New world!



There appear the deserted, there wail the dejected,
And heart-rending lamentations beggar description,
The ocean is swelling, the sky trembling,
the wind blowing,
Vishnu's discus piercing the firmament,
the trident of Shiva being hurled.
Behold! The comet and the meteor
Out to subvert the Creation:
At this, in my breast are blossoming
now the flowers of million gardens,
Ay, at the prospect of a Millennium!

- Translated by Abdul Hakim

Kazi Nazrul Islam