• Parabaas
    Parabaas : পরবাস : বাংলা ভাষা, সাহিত্য ও সংস্কৃতি
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  • Ink On My Face, Ink On My Hands by : Kazi Nazrul Islam
    translated from Bengali to English by Kazi Nazrul Islam


    Ink On My Face, Ink On My Hands by Kazi Nazrul Islam

    Ink On My Face, Ink On My Hands


    Kazi Nazrul Islam




    Oh mother of mine,

    There's ink* on my hands,

    ink on my face.

    The neighbors laugh.

    My education amounts to nothing -

    I see "ShyaMa" in the letter M

    And Kali in the letter K,

    I dance and clap my hands.

    Only my tears multiply

    when my eyes light

    on the rows of black marks

    in multiplication tables.

    I couldn't care less for

    the alphabet's shades of sound

    since your dark, lovely shade

    isn't among them.

    But Mother, I can read

    all that you write

    on leaves in the forest,

    on the waters of the sea,

    and in the ledger of the sky.

    Let them call me illiterate.


    *The Bengali original of this song plays on the word for ink, "kali," which
    is pronounced identically with the name of the goddess Kali.



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