Few things pull at the heart like childhood, and Bengali writers have captured it better than almost anyone. This list is all Bengali: Tagore’s story Chhuti and his poem Birpurush, Sukanta’s playful rhymes, Jibanananda Das looking back after twenty years, and Golam Mostafa’s joyful Kishor. Each pick has a few lines from the original and a short note in English, and every title opens the full piece on The Poetic Land, free.
1ছুটি (The Homecoming)
by Rabindranath Tagore Bengali Classic Story
বালকদিগের সর্দার ফটিক চক্রবর্তীর মাথায় চট করিয়া একটা নূতন ভাবোদয় হইল;
Phatik is the leader of the village boys, until he is sent to Calcutta to live with his uncle's family. Tagore's 'Chhuti' is about a boy who only wants to go home, and it is one of the most moving childhood stories ever written.
2বীরপুরুষ (The Hero)
by Rabindranath Tagore Bengali Classic Poem
মনে করো, যেন বিদেশ ঘুরে
মাকে নিয়ে যাচ্ছি অনেক দূরে।
A little boy imagines taking his mother across a wild, lonely land on a red horse and fighting off robbers to keep her safe. Bengali children have recited it for more than a hundred years; read it as a grown-up and it is about how badly we all want to protect our mothers.
3এক যে ছিল (Once There Was)
by Sukanta Bhattacharya Bengali Classic Poem
এক যে ছিল আপনভোলা কিশোর,
ইস্কুল তার ভাল লাগত না,
Once there was a dreamy boy who hated school and never learned the usual lessons, yet he outgrew all the scholars of the land. Sukanta Bhattacharya's playful tribute; you can probably guess who the boy grew up to be.
4কুড়ি বছর পরে (Twenty Years Later)
by Jibanananda Das Bengali Classic Poem
আবার বছর কুড়ি পরে তার সাথে দেখা হয় যদি!
What if we meet again, twenty years from now, beside the paddy fields in the month of Kartik? Jibanananda Das's famous poem about memory, time and a face from long ago.
5অতি কিশোরের ছড়া (A Very Young Rhyme)
by Sukanta Bhattacharya Bengali Poem
তোমরা আমায় নিন্দে ক’রে দাও না যতই গালি,
আমি কিন্তু মাখছি আমার গালেতে চুনকালি,
কোনো কাজটাই পারি নাকো বলতে পারি ছড়া,
পাশের পড়া পড়ি না ছাই পড়ি ফেলের পড়া।
A cheeky boy admits he cannot do anything except make up rhymes, reads only the lessons for failing and hates bitter medicine. Sukanta’s funny, honest rhyme sounds like every naughty child who ever lived.
6কিশোর (The Young Ones)
by Golam Mostafa Bengali Poem
আমরা কিশোর, আমরা কচি, আমরা বনের বুল্বুলি,
সবুজ পাতায় শয্যা রচি, হাওয়ার দোলায় দুল্দুলি!
‘We are young, we are tender, we are the bulbuls of the forest’: Golam Mostafa’s joyful poem is the voice of childhood itself, bathing in morning light with a hundred thousand hopes asleep inside.
Keep reading
What is the one childhood memory you would go back to? Tell us in the comments. Want more? Read more Bengali poems and stories on The Poetic Land, or see all our TPL Articles reading lists.
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