Lesson 3/45 min
Bangla literature (2): Nazrul to the modern poets
| Line | Poet |
|---|---|
| In one hand a curved bamboo flute, in the other the war-trumpet | Kazi Nazrul Islam |
| O poverty, you have made me great | Kazi Nazrul Islam |
| I cannot shed blood alone, so I write this blood-writing | Kazi Nazrul Islam |
| Black and white only outside; inside all are equally red | Satyendranath Dutta |
| Sweeter than honey is the soil of my country | Satyendranath Dutta |
| Wild creatures are beautiful in the forest, children in their mothers' laps | Sanjib Chandra Chattopadhyay |
| I have seen the face of Bengal, so I seek no other beauty of the world | Jibanananda Das |
| A strange darkness has come upon this world today | Jibanananda Das |
| I will leave this world fit for this child to live in | Sukanta Bhattacharya |
| In the realm of hunger the earth is prose; the full moon is a scorched loaf | Sukanta Bhattacharya |
| O great life, no more poetry; now bring hard, harsh prose | Sukanta Bhattacharya |
| Shepherd boy, shepherd boy, look back once | Jasim Uddin |
| Asad's shirt is today the flag of our lives | Shamsur Rahman |
| Freedom, you are Tagore's ageless poem, an undying song | Shamsur Rahman |
| Even today I smell corpses in the air | Rudra Muhammad Shahidullah |
| War means a game of enemy and enemy | Nirmalendu Goon |
| Give me rice, or I will eat the map | Rafiq Azad |
| For one in youth, now is the best time to join the procession | Helal Hafiz |
| My very birth is my lifelong sin | Daud Haider |
| I am the poet of blacksmiths, brass-workers, carpenters and labourers | Premendra Mitra |
| Dear flower, today is no day for play; we stand face to face with destruction | Subhash Mukhopadhyay |
| Flowers may bloom or not; today it is spring | Subhash Mukhopadhyay |
| Our pride, our hope: oh, beloved Bangla language | Atulprasad Sen |
| There, above the bamboo grove, the moon has risen | Jatindramohan Bagchi |
Did you know?: Lines like “Even today I smell corpses in the air” and “I will leave this world fit for this child to live in” are exam favourites: you are asked to match the line to the poet.
Check yourself
Whose line is “Give me rice, or I will eat the map”?
At a glance
- 1
“In one hand a curved bamboo flute, in the other the war-trumpet” — Nazrul.
- 2
“In the realm of hunger the earth is prose” and “I will leave this world fit for this child” — Sukanta Bhattacharya.
- 3
“Asad's shirt is today the flag of our lives” — Shamsur Rahman.
- 4
“Even today I smell corpses in the air” — Rudra Muhammad Shahidullah; “Give me rice” — Rafiq Azad.
- 5
“Our pride, our hope: oh, beloved Bangla language” — Atulprasad Sen.