Translated by Fakrul Alam
Shesh nahi je shesh kotha ke bolbe
There is no end; who is to say there is one?
What appears a wound becomes a flame
When clouds cluster, downpours follow
Packed ice melts to become a river in full flow
What looks like the end is only seemingly so
Crossing the dark, one sees light at the door
When an old heart breaks, a new one beats
Where life blooms, the harvest has to be death!
Banglar mati Banglar jol
Let Bengal’s soil, waters, air, and its produce
Be made holy; bless them, bless them all, O Lord!
Let Bengal’s homes, fairs, forests and fields
Be made holy; bless them, bless them all, O Lord.
Let Bengali vows, hopes, and deeds all come true,
And let the Bengali language blossom, O Lord!
Let Bengali hearts and minds, and all Bengali siblings
In Bengali homes become one, O Lord!
Fakrul Alam is a Senator of the University of Dhaka, from whose English department he has retired, and is now Pro-Vice Chancellor of East West University. His numerous publications include Daniel Defoe: Colonial Propagandist (Dhaka University, 1989) and Imperial Entanglements and Literature in English (Writers.ink, 2007). He has also translated Jibananada Das’s Selected Poems (UPL, 1999) and Mir Mosharraf Hossain’s Ocean of Sorrow (Bangla Academy, 2016). He has co-edited The Essential Tagore (HUP, 2014).
