Muhammad Nurul Huda

 

A Copper Nation We Are

 

 

Bathed in the sun, grown up in the rain

Of thousand centuries built we are

We’ve come, a coppery nation we are.

 

Approaching events to the life adhere

At the moment of birth

The re sticks a remembrance of the gone by past ;

Like anklet there jingles

Our youth does jingle on ….

We hold in us all memories and all the sounds

                     As does the earth

A self-created dream we rear ;

We’ve come, a coppery nation we are .

 

Some are archers, some are fiddlers,

An ektara  does some one hold

And someone carries a sharpened blade.

For eternal time and over the land

With rejoice and prank we gear ;

We’ve come, a coppery nation we are.

 

We denied the dreamland in the core of heart

Resembling a sea-base, a cave or a womb,

Did march past with the hoisting ploughs

All looking like bayonet, spear ;

We’ve come, a coppery nation we are.

 

this approach, this mighty speed

Did fabricate all love in us.

Love is raining in a moonlit night

It’s ploughing the earth in severe heat

                      And we with such a love

Demanded a life so bare ;

We’ve come, coppery nation we are,

 

Royal duties we left behind

Festivities of castes we left

To the folk-ways, to proletariat

Consecrated now we are :

We‘ve come, a coppery nation we are.

 

                                  Translated by Abid Anwar

 

Muhammad Nurul Huda (1949--) Poet. Critic and Translator.  Poetry : Shnite Samudrapat (1972), Shovajatra, Drvidar proti (1975), Amra Tamate Jati (1981), Shukla Shakuntala (1983), Jesus Mujib (1985), Ghaliber Kachhe Khama Prarthana (1989), Ami Jaladas Tumi Jaladasi (1990), Prio Pongtimala (1995), Mujibbari (1996), Dekha Hole Ek Hoye Jai (1998). Essay : Shartahin Sharte (1981), Rabindraprokriti o Anynya Probandha (1998),  Praner Minar Shahid Minar (1994), Translation : Paribartaner Pathe (1972), Agamemnon (1987), Yunus Emrer Kovita (1992) . Awards : Alaol Literary Award –1985, Bangla Academy Award –1988, Coxbazar Padak-1989.