A Bengali Poet OF NOBEL WINNER

Rabindranath Tagore

[1861-1941]

• Gitanjali, 1912, 1913 - first poems in English - or see University of Virginia version
• The Crescent Moon, 1913 - child-poems, illustrated
• The Post Office, 1914 - a fable play, death of a child
• The King of the Dark Chamber, 1914 - powerful drama
• The Home and the World, 1915, 1919 - novel, in 1908
• Fruit-Gathering, 1916 - poems after Gitanjali
• Stray Birds, 1916 - philosophical epigrams
• The Hungry Stones and Other Stories, 1916 - short stories
• THE HUNGRY STONES
• THE VICTORY
• ONCE THERE WAS A KING
• THE HOME-COMING
• MY LORD, THE BABY
• THE KINGDOM OF CARDS
• THE DEVOTEE
• 
  

Tagore was a Bengali writer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. He was born in Calcutta and later traveled over the world. He grew up in a large house where there was much writing and artistic activity, and he wrote prolifically his entire life, producing more than 3,000 songs as well as volumes of novels, short stories, plays, and poems. In later life he delivered lectures and made many paintings. He wrote what are now the national anthems of both India and Bangladesh.

Tagore (who perhaps should be referred to as "Rabindranath" as Bengalis do with other famous writers) became famous in the West when he traveled to England and met W. B. Yeats and others, and translated his works into English. He was knighted in 1915--but, after the massacre in India in 1919 of demonstrators, gave up his knighthood. Although he did not agree with all the political activities and nationalistic principles of the movements for independence, he did participate in them along with Gandhi.

After a short spell of fame in the West, and after he gave up his knighthood, Tagore's English writings lapsed into a sort of obscurity. Very recently some editors and translators have realized that Tagore is very much a modernist writer in spite of the previous criticism that placed him in the sentimentalist or mystical Edwardian camp. It seems quite possible to improve on the earlier translations and make Tagore's works sing again to modern readers in English.

We would like to call your attention to two recent English translations: "Selected Poems" by William Radice (Penguin ISBN 0-14-018366-3); and stories and other writings, "The Housewarming", (Signet Classic paperback), edited by Amiya Chakravarty, and translated as well by Mary Lago and Tarun Gupta. 

.: Kazi Nazrul Islam

Poets & Writers


.: Kazi Nazrul Islam
The rebel poet (vidrohi kobi)
Kazi Nazrul Islam, popularly known as rebel poet (vidrohi kobi), was born on the 25th May 1899 at Churulia in the district of Burdwan, West Bengal, India. He was an exceptional talented person in Bangla literature. This patriot, poet, composer writer, political figure or the myriad minded man edited a politico-cultural magazine "Dhumketu".

When still a school student in his teens Nazrul joined the newly recruited Bengali regiment (1916) and sent to Mesopotamia some months before the armistice. The regiment was not given a chance to face battle but all the same Nazrul got his fill of the fighting gusto which later-found expression in poetic effusion and warmth.


Kazi Nazrul Islam

His first two significant poems, Pralayollas (Exhilaration at the Final Dissolution) and Vidrohi (Rebellion) appeared early in 1922 and his first book of poem Agnibina (The lute of fire) was out before the year was over. The book was received with an enthusiasm never experienced in India before or since. After he joined the Kollol group and wrote mostly deft and pungent verse and songs galore.

Nazrul Islam wrote a good numbers of valuable poems, songs, novels, dramas. He had a good command on classic Indian song. He could sing, recite and act with considerable proficiency.

Nazrul was an emotional soul, but his emotion was unstable and volatile. Those who came in personal contact with him were moved by his irresistible enthusiasm and sincerity. But his literary output falls far short of his merit, except the early poems in Agnibina. After Agnibina his best known books of poems and songs are Dolonchampa(1923), Biser Bansi (The poisonous flute, 1924), Bhangar Gan (Songs of break-up, 1924), Puber Haoya (The east wind 1925) and Bulbul(1928).

The rebel poet Kazi Nazrul Islam was crowned in 1972 as the national poet of Bangladesh. He was living such a life with no care in a shabby, nasty and crowded cottage in Calcutta. West Bengal government did not even arrange a bed in any convalescent home for the poet who was suffering from irreversible brain-damage and living nearly a vegetative life.

Under the auspicious of Bangladesh government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the poet was moved to Dhaka; capital of newly liberated Bangladesh situated 125 km west of Trishal a small township in Mymensingh district where Kazi Nazrul Islam spent several years during his boyhood. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman arranged round the clock nursing, physiotherapy since his arrival in Dhaka.

The poet died at Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh as National poet on the 29th August 1976. Nazrul Institute, an institution works for research and propagating the poet’s life, works and ideals, is situated in Dhaka with several branches in divisional towns. Bangla Academy has published collected works of the poet to celebrate the poet’s birth centenary in the year (1999).

A Bengali Poet

Michael Madhusudan Dutta (1824-1873), the 19th century Bengali poet and playwright, was born on 25 January 1824 in a landed family in the village of Sagardari in Jessore district, Bengal (now in Bangladesh). He was the only son of a well-to-do Kayastha Family. His father, Rajnarayan Dutta, was a law practitioner in Kolkata. Madhusudan in his early years, was taught at home by his mother, Jahnabi Devi, and later he joined Sagardari Primary School. At the age of 7 he went to Khidirpur School, Kolkata. In 1843 he got admitted to Kolkata's famous Hindu College. Here, amongst other subjects, he also studied Bengali, Sanskrit and Persian.

Madhusudan began writing while at Hindu College. He drew everyone's attention at a college function when he recited a self-composed poem. He won several scholarships in college exams as well as a gold medal for an essay on women's education. While a student at Hindu College, Madhusudan's poems in Bengali and English were published in Jnananvesan, Bengal Spectator, Literary Gleamer, Calcutta Library Gazette, Literary Blossom and Comet. Lord Byron was Madhusudan's inspiration.

Michael's exceptionally colourful personality and his unconventional, dramatic and in many ways tragic life have added to the magnetism and glamour of his name. Generous in friendship, romantic and passionate by temperament, he was also fond of the good life; he was financially irresponsible, and an incorrigible spendthrift. He experimented not only in the field of writing, but also in his personal life.

On 9 February 1843, Madhusudan ran away from home and converted to Christianity, to escape a marriage his father had arranged and also to satiate his fascination with everything English and Western. He took the name 'Michael' upon his conversion and wrote a hymn to be recited on the day of his Baptism. However, on becoming a Christian, Madhusudan had to leave Hindu College as Christians were not allowed to study there during that time. In 1844, he got admitted to Bishop's College and remained there until 1847. There, he also studied Greek and Latin.

Madhusudan's conversion to Christianity estranged him from his family, and his father stopped sending him money. In 1848, Michael left for Madras where he started teaching, first at Madras Male Orphan Asylum School (1848-1852) and then at Madras University High School (1852-1856). Besides teaching, Madhusudan was also involved with a number of newspapers and journals. He edited the Eurasian (later known as the Eastern Guardian), the Madras Circulator and General Chronicle and the Hindu Chronicle. He also worked as Assistant Editor of the Madras Spectator (1848-1856).

While in Madras, Madhusudan married Rebecca Mactavys Thompson and had a family by her. Meanwhile, his mother died and then his father. After his father's death, Madhusudan abandoned Rebecca and his first family due to a failed marriage and returned to Kolkata in February 1856 to live with a Frenchwoman named Henrietta White and had a second family by her. She and Michael did not seem to have been formally married, presumably because Rebecca had never granted him divorce. There is no record either of their marriage or of Michael obtaining a divorce from Rebecca.

In Kolkata, Michael first worked as a clerk at the police court and then as interpreter. He also started contributing to different journals. His friends urged him to write in Bengali.

Madhusudan realised the paucity of good writing in Bengali as well as his own ability to fill this vacuum. While translating ramnarayan tarkaratna's play Ratnavali (1858) into English, he felt the absence of good plays in Bengali. He became associated with the belgachhiya theatre in Kolkata patronised by the Rajas of Paikpara. In 1858 he wrote the western-style play Sharmistha based on the mahabharata story of Devayani and Yayati. This was the first original play in Bengali, making Madhusudan the first Bengali playwright.

By dint of his genius, he removed the stagnation in bengali literature both in style and content. He was the first to use blank verse in 1860 in the play padmavati based on a Greek myth. This use of blank verse freed Bengali poetry from the limitations of rhymed verse. This success prompted Madhusudan to write his first Bengali poem, Tilottama-Sambhava in blank verse in that very same year. It is based on the Puranic story of the war waged on the Gods by the demon brothers Sunda and Upasunda. This poem was written entirely in blank verse, and so were the two later poems Meghnad-Badh Kavya (Ballad of Meghnad's Demise in Ramayana) in 1861 and Virangana. The later poems silenced the critics and detractors, and permanently established the vogue of blank verse literature.