O Great Life!

Sukanta Bhattacharya (1926-1947) is counted as one of the great Bengali poets along with Rabindranath Tagore, Jibanananda Das, and Kazi Nazrul. For someone who died at twenty, that is quite something. Many of his poems have sociopolitical undertones but are romantic at the core.

This is a small poem written by Sukanta in what seems to have been utter desperation:
হে মহাজীবন, আর এ কাব্য নয়
এবার কঠিন, কঠোর গদ্যে আনো,
পদ-লালিত্য-ঝঙ্কার মুছে যাক
গদ্যের কড়া হাতুড়িকে আজ হানো |

প্রয়োজন নেই, কবিতার স্নিগ্ধতা-
কবিতা তোমায় দিলাম আজকে ছুটি,
ক্ষুধার রাজ্যে পৃথিবী-গদ্যময়ঃ
পূর্ণিমা-চাঁদ যেন ঝল্সানো রুটি ||

Here is my English translation:
O great life,
no more of this poetry
This time, bring forth
hard, harsh prose

Let the rhyme and charm of verses
stop
and the hammer of prose
strike

Softness of poetry
has lost relevance
O poetry,
I grant you a long leave

A prose-full earth
in the kingdom of hunger
All they see in the full moon
is a burnt roti

Author(s)

Hari Ravikumar
About:

Hari is an author, translator, editor, designer, and violinist with a deep interest in philosophy, education pedagogy, literature, and films. He has (co-)written/translated and (co-)edited some forty books, mostly related to Indian culture.

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