POEM

Yet he is the king
-Shamsur Rahman
The countrymen get together
And play on band and sing
No crown on his head
Yet he is the king.

On the bank of Madhumoti
In Tunghipara hamlet
The blades of grass used to kiss
Fondly that very king’s feet.

All call him Bangabandhu
The Nation’s Father.
The countrymen come running
At the call of that great leader.

All know-in the path he showed
Liberty the country achieved
In freedom-fighting the Pak-troops
Were confounded and ruined.

The foes at home ended his life
They are known as murderers
Yet he came out victorious
Defeated are those killers.

The wheel of history
So much the traitors turn
In the minds of tillers and workers
His image has been drawn.

Translator: Gazi Abdulla-helBaqui

The thunder
message of Khoka
-Mosarrof Hossain Bhuiyan

Regime, exploitation, torture and in oppression,
tribulation
A boy was born in the country of grassy-mother
Sunken by the smell of muddy soil on Modhumoti’s bank
That boy of Tungipara was increased gradually.

To swim in the fresh water of the river in boyhood
Fierce fighting was tigers of inshore and crocodiles
of water
In the fight of freedom he was not retreated
That daredevil golden son did not fear anything.
The killer soldiers killed people, skulls were flying
The bullets were fired like rain without guilt
In protest, the thundered-voice of Khoka roared
To get on his brave chest in the face of death.

Who gave worth of patriotism by the heart’s blood
Who is the great-leader else equivalent to Khoka
Khoka would be the father of the nation Mujibur Rahman
The blood-river of seventy one is flowing on his chest.

Translator: Rudro Rasel