Blogging 201, Day Five

Day Five: Make the Most of Your Archives.

Today’s assignment: Integrate a feature to draw traffic to your older content like a widget,related posts, or a “Best  of “Page.

From The Archives

English: Rabindranath Tagore Русский: Рабиндранат Тагор (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Rabindranath Tagore Русский: Тагор, Рабиндранат (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In his lifetime Tagore wrote in all sorts of literary forms. Despite that, the name of poet stuck to him. He was called viswa-kabi(the universal poet) by his own people. He was certainly one who wrote variety of poems.When one surveys his poems, one could exclaim as Dryden did about Chaucer,’Here is God’s plenty.’He began writing poems at a tender age. It is said that when he lay dying,poems kept coming to him. Although he was incapable of writing himself,he dictated the poems,he checked them to be sure they were formed perfectly.

I have read many poems of Tagore.I never thought of translating them.To me they were there to read and enjoy.The feeling that I should translate them to show the beauty of his work,came to me only lately.In English there are limited words one can use to translate Bengali prose,poetry or songs. I am aware,my translation will fail to catch the depth of Tagore’s poetry. I have finally found a poem,Tagore wrote,The title is “To Remember”.

“To Remember”

I do not have any recollection of my mother.

Only when I go out to play suddenly without any reason

A kind of tune keeps ringing in my ears,

as if the sound mixes with my mother’s words in the middle of my game.

Did my mother sing while rocking my swing–.

My mother has gone but, as she was going she left the song.

I do not have any recollection of my mother;

Only in September, early in the morning in the garden of the white flowers,

the wind spreads the smell of the flowers wet with dew;

Why then does my mothers words,echo in my mind;

perhaps when my mother carried the decorated basket of flowers—-

The smell of Pooja transformed into my mother’s smell and came to me.

I do not have any recollection of my mother;

Only when I sit in the corner of my bedroom;

I look far-away at the blue sky from my window—

All of a sudden I feel my mother is looking at me very intently;

She used to have me in her lap and look at me,

that is the look she left all over the sky as a reminder for me.

I have tried to translate the Bengali poem written by Tagore into English. I hope it is okay!

Ranu

An example of handwritten Bengali script. Part of a poem written by Rabindranath Tagore in 1926 in Hungary. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Rabindranath Tagore won the Nobel prize for literature. It is the first Nobel prize won by Asia. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

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Poetry of Tagore Translated by Ranu →

Writing 101, Day Ten: Update your readers over a cup of coffee

Today’s assignment: Write an update post in the form of a virtual coffee date.

Or

*Set your poem or short story in a cafe.

Or

*Go to your neighborhood spot with your laptop or notebook and free-write for 20 minutes, prompted by what you observe.

Or

*Love or hate coffee ? Tell us why.

I think, “Love or hate coffee” is one I’d like to write about.

I do not love coffee and I do not hate it either.

Here is why. I was introduced to tea at a very early age. Maybe because I come from a country where tea is popular, because it’s grown there. We export it to countries all over the world. It’s the main reason coffee was not imported in our countries for a long time.

Now because of the people of  my country travel a lot( Bangladesh). They have tasted it out of curiosity, some feel it tastes good, some think it’s not that tasty, they like it since it’s available all over the world and it makes them feel special and cool.It’s for this reason coffee is available in Bangladesh, but it’very expensive, compared to tea. The stores charge a lot of money for coffee mainly to discourage the inhabitants to pick up the habit of drinking coffee instead of tea.

For me nothing about it makes me want to drink it, since it is stylish, and the phrase, “Let’s go for coffee,” does not attract my attention.

I’m a creature of habit, I’ve had tea, since I started going to school. Rain or shine I had my cup of tea. It is one drink I love and am not about to desert it for something else, such as coffee, hot chocolate or any kind of juice. It’s all about pleasure in my case, the only drink that provides it is tea.

When someone visits our house first thing I’d say is, “Cha khaben?”( would you like a cup of tea?)To these same people if I say, “Coffee khaben?”( would you like a cup of coffee?)

Their response would be, “kee bollen?”( What did you say?)

It would mean so you have forgotten your roots. It is part of our culture. For me it’s part of my habit. I cannot think of replacing tea for coffee.