Shabdaguchha
Shabdaguchha
Humayun AzadI Probably will Die for a Little ThingI probably will die for a little thing, For a little leaf of grass, And for a little drop of dew. I probably will die for a petal of flower Suddenly fly away in summer’s breeze. I will die for a bit of rain. I probably will die for a little thing, For a short coo of a cuckoo, And for a little wave from a toddler’s face. I probably will die for a few drops of tears Hanging from someone’s eye. I will die for a bit of sunshine. I probably will die for a little thing, For a little ray of moonlight, And for a little glimpse of cloud. I probably will die for a butterfly Lost in the twenty-first floor of a tower. I will die for a hint of green. I probably will die for a little thing, For a segment of a short dream, And for a little sadness. I probably will die for a little sigh In someone else’s sleep. I will die for a bit of beauty. Humayun Azad (1947- 2004), the most significant poet, novelist, linguist, and freethinker of Bangladesh was first attacked by the Islamic fundamentalists with chopping knives and seriously wounded while he was on the way back home from the National Book Fair in 2004 and later in the same year, he was found death in his room at the Munich University, Germany, where he went with a scholarship. He was attacked for his novel, Pak Saar Jamin Saad Baad, which portrayed the brutal acts of the fundamentalists to the innocent public, and in the broader scale, to the world. Dr. Azad, the author of more than 60 books in various literary fields including 8 collections of poetry, became one of the major voices of the twentieth century Bengali literature. He wrote some of the best essays in his time and edited a significant anthology, Adhunik Bangla Kobita (The Modern Bengali Poetry). Dr. Azad was a professor of Bengali literature at Dhaka University. Translated from the Bengali by Hassanal Abdullah |