Tagore Song, posted and translated by Ranu

I am the only one alive.

What I had, I lost.

I’m  left with loneliness.

Those who I thought were mine,

no longer respond.

I weep and ask myself

where are they, I get no response.

O mother please tell me,

whom shall I call?

I ask you mother-

Why did you take away

everything from me.

How hard-hearted do you think

I am to be able to  to live by myself!

…………………………………… 😦

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

song, singer Hemant Kumar, Language: Bengali,translated by Ranu

The pole star questions me

How long will I be confused

I could not reply except

My life is spent looking for my destiny!

………………………….

As if someone gave me  some hope out of love

Which is why the light of the sun

was extinguished

I waste my time following my shadow

To my dismay I find one day

My shadow and I are defeated!

…………………………..

I’m not looking for my fate

But my fate is looking for me

It understands what my mind does not

I see everything moving around me

I am the only one who has no direction!

………………………………

The pole star questions me

How long will I be confused!

………………………………… 😦

Tagore song posted by Ranu

I posted this song of Tagore, fortunately it’s sung in Hindi, English and Bengali, the lyrics were written in Bengali by Tagore, the Hindi and English translation  is done by two very talented individuals whose names I do not know. The song is sung by three different singers. I do not know who they are.

…………………………. 🙂

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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Blogging 101, Day Eleven: Make a prompt personal

Today’s assignment: Publish a post based on your own, personalized take on a blogging prompt.

Daring greatly : It takes courage and vulnerability, to, “dare greatly.” For this week’s inspiration, explore the significance of sincerity,vulnerability, and courage in your writing.

My quest for recognition came in the latter part of 2011. At this time I dared to register in an online course, which seemed to cater to the needs of Pakistanis. It was all about the great Poet and Philosopher, Allama Iqbal. I read two verses of one of his poems and went looking for more. The saying I believe is true,”Seek and ye shall find.”

I read this on the cover of a book belonging to my eldest brother.My brother pointed out the lines to me and said,Ranu read the lines and tell me what it means, I was about nine years old then I told him from my nine year old mind, “look for it and you shall find it.”

At that time my brother smiled and said,”I can see there is hope for you.”

That was then but this is now. I registered for the course. I could sense I wasn’t received well by the participants because I was a Bengali , in their mind I am a traitor, the reason I was an East Pakistani and we are noted for separating from West Pakistan, and have conveniently carved out a country named Bangladesh for ourselves,. I knew they hated me, why was I blamed I had no part in it, the politicians in their own interest did the damage. Let’s come to what’s happening now at this moment i.e same situation with different players.

This year a new group of Pakistanis have joined the course, I quickly told on the blog I was from Bengal. Well the attitude towards me did not change.

In our course we get a lesson every week, we are required to read and answer one question from the four given. The participants are encouraged to write their comment on the reply by each participant. This is where it got interesting, the Pakistanis left their comment on everyone’s reply, except mine. Can this be some kind of oversight or was it done deliberately. Well I think the latter makes more sense than the former.

In this connection I’d admit two Pakistanis wrote their comment, One is an O level student who seems to have some humanity in him , the other one has studied in the US  I assume this may be the reason.

…………………………….:)

 

 

Blogging 101, Day : Eleven, Personal prompt: Tunnel vision

Day Eleven: Make a Prompt Personal

Today’s assignment : Publish a post based on your own, personalized take on a blogging prompt. My favorite prompt right now is:

Tunnel Vision: these two words immediately reminds me of narrow mindedness, just like retinitis pigmentosa, it’s an incurable disease, while the latter is an eye disease that eventually causes blindness to the patient with this symptom. The former  plays with the mind and  makes it blind.

We make up our mind about things based on generalization.

In my case when they find out  I am a  ‘Bengali’  they  immediately associate it with the word ‘traitor’. How did this thought come to  their minds?

History tells us there was a certain man named ‘Mir Jafar’ was   a Bengali who jeopardized the fate of the people of his country by trading secrets. He did it because of his selfish interest. Mir Jafar was a traitor , hence all Bengalis are traitors.

It seems my being a  Bengali, is a terrible thing. They will discriminate me just because of of this.  It is becoming difficult for me to endure it.

I find  solace thinking , I can do something which makes me happy,  Blogging is one of them. Here everyone is sincere eager to help when I need it , will never ignore me because I am a Bengali.

I had the most pleasant experience a few days ago, I wrote to Michele I was unable to do Day Ten  assignment, I did not understand how it can be done. I found a detailed explanation in my reply box, how to do it. It certainly made my day.

Although in my reply I thanked blogger, Azhar Youssef, yet I felt it is not enough.

I came to the conclusion, not everyone is narrow minded, there are a lot of them who are broad minded, which makes our world pretty special.

………………………………….. 🙂

 

365 Writing Prompts: Blogging

When I started blogging I knew nothing about it. I read a post written by Robert another blogger and wondered if I should try as well. I had no idea how to begin I was helped by Akhtar Waseem Dar, he suggested to start translating some of Tagore’s Poems because I am a Bengali and know the language.

It wasn’t easy, as a young child poetry was my best subject, I read all kinds of poetry written by famous poets. I learned English, Bengali and Urdu in school. I learned to read, write and speak in these languages. Since Bengali is my mother tongue, I had more opportunities to read Bengali poems written by famous poets.

I loved Tagore’s poems, he wrote a lot of poems for children, one of them was: Brishti paurhey tapur tupur : meaning Rain is falling drip drop. This was the first one I translated, Akhtar Bhai(Bhai means brother in Bengali and Urdu) I use brother to show respect. He read the translation and encouraged me a lot. He thought I did a good job. I began to feel confident, I continued to translate Tagore’s poems for a while, then I switched to his song lyrics and started translating them as well. All this time Akhtar Bhai continued to encourage me. There were times I felt insecure, I didn’t know if my translation was worth reading. I’d let my daughter read it before posting, she’d read it and say: “Mom I like it.” this encouraged me more.

Now Robert whom I’ve known from my online courses is a great help, he reads everything I write and always writes very valuable and encouraging comment.

Then there is Khurram A.Shafique, a writer I’ve known through online courses, he is also the facilitator of the course. I address him as brother. He has been very helpful like a real brother. I feel fortunate to have these three awesome individuals encouraging me.

I cannot remember how but along the way I met Leslie Moon, she is a very gifted poet , I love reading her poetry, I write my comment most of the time, sometimes I’m not sure what to write.

I had once mentioned about not having enough readers of my post, she encouraged me to read posts written by other bloggers. I do read some of the posts and leave my comment. This is how I met Indira.

I am happy I have written and posted quite a few translations, stories, a few poems.  I love reading and memorizing poems but writing them regularly is not one of my strong points, so I leave it for Leslie to write and me to enjoy 🙂

…………………

k: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2015/04/05/365-writing-prompts-blogging

 

365 Writing Prompts: Ghostwriter

If you could have any author –living or dead— write your biography, who would you choose?

I’d choose Tagore to write the introduction, he is a Bengali like me,he’d be able to begin with an appropriate song, describing the places I visited foods I like, books I  read and songs that are my favorite.

I’d love to have Wordsworth write a small paragraph, explaining my love of nature.

The last part I’d implore Iqbal to complete, he was a Muslim, since our religion is the same he’d be able to explain my dedication for daily prayer.

These are the three authors I would select to write my biography. If there are any confusions writing it, Tagore will make it interesting by filling in the blanks with one of his remarkable songs.

If Wordsworth volunteers to get the blanks filled. It would be terrific, his wealth of knowledge of nature will fit in nicely to cover the spaces.

While I think Iqbal would do even better by covering the gap with his philosophy of human mind!

https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2015/03/11/365-writing-pr…ts-ghostw

 

Tagore Song Posted by Ranu

365 Writing Prompts: Hear no evil

Tell us about a conversation you couldn’t help but overhear and wish you hadn’t.

I did overhear something I wish I didn’t. My husband invited some of his friends to dinner one day. All his friends knew he was a Bengali and his wife was a Bengali too.

One of my husband’s friend was from Karachi where Urdu is spoken by most people.I learned Urdu when I was very young, we had neighbors who spoke it.

My husband’s friend seemed to be in a sour mood that day, he called his friend to talk to him about his family problem. I understood what he said.He didn’t think anyone in that party knew his language, unfortunately I heard everything he said against his wife. I did not try, he spoke loud enough for us to hear, only I was the one who understood everything he said.If this is overhearing I am guilty.

This happened to me once, our British Prof. was walking past us one day, I told my classmate in Urdu, “Oh look Mr. Baird is coming!” He quietly walked by without saying anything.

Next day in the classroom, he told us, “Oh by the way, Miss Sabeth speaks very good Urdu.”

I was so embarrassed I did not know what to say, Mr. Baird was a linguist, he lived in India for two years,I had no idea!

: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/12/01/365-writing-pr…s-hear-no-evil