Kazi Nazrul Islam

The following poem is from www.museindia.com, 2008, Issue #22

1st Prize – Debjani Chatterjee: Tr.of Kazi Nazrul Islam (Bengali)

Excerpt of Nazrul Islam's original poem in Bengali

Poems translated from Bengali by Debjani Chatterjee


We Are Two Flowers On The Same Stalk

We are two flowers on the same stalk - Hindu and Muslim.
The Muslim is the jewel of its eye, the Hindu is its life.
In the lap of Mother Sky
we swing like sun and moon;
we are the same blood in the same throbbing vein beneath the same chest.
We breathe the same land’s air, we drink the same land’s water;
we are the fruits and flowers that bloom on the same mother’s breast.
On the same country’s soil we find our final rest:
some in burial grounds and some on funeral pyres.
We call our mother in the same tongue, we sing the same tune.
Not recognising each other in the night’s darkness, we come to blows;
but in the morning we shall know each other as brothers.
We will weep and embrace each other,
we will ask each other’s pardon.
On that day our Hindustan will smile with pride!

Commentary:

Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976), national poet of Bangladesh, advocated passionately the unity of Hindus and Muslims.  Although a Muslim, he wrote poems inspired by Goddess Kali. In this poem, “We are Two Flowers on the Same Stalk,” Kazi Nazrul uses cosmic and elemental images to describe the symbiotic connection between Hindus and Muslims. This poem, although bound by the historical time period of the partition of India and Pakistan, continues to ring true today.

Pramila Venkateswaran