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The ephemeral
Jhinge Phool
Don’t dwell on
Nazrul’s wretched life; celebrate his literature instead
By Dr. A.H. Jaffor Ullah
Poet Nazrul Islam could be aptly
called as the Keats of Bengal. Similar to English poet John
Keats who was a handsome man and whose literary life was
shortened by a disease, our Nazrul too was a handsome man and
his literary geniuses only lasted from 1920 through late 1930s.
In this short period of quarter century or so, he wrote
innumerable poems and songs without even collecting a single one
for himself. Either the publishers got them or individuals at
whose request he composed a poem or two they kept them.
Nazrul was truly a poet for most
ordinary folks of Bengal. Wherever he went throughout Bengal,
he wrote poems on loose leaves and he gave it away to the person
who requested him to write one. Therefore, it was a formidable
and a daunting task to create an anthology of his poems. In
this regard, Dhaka’s Bangla Academy has done a wonderful
project. In four volumes, they collated Nazrul’s literary
outpours. This is a four-volume anthology that should be
collected by most Nazrul lovers of the world. The price is very
reasonable under $ 20.00 if you can purchase it from Bangla
Academy’s bookshop at the premise.
Nazrul because of his very nature
never settled in one place. He had to move on from places to
place. He was restless, to say the least. Sometimes he never
could figure out what he wanted from his life. Take the case of
his marriage. He wanted to marry this young Muslim girl. He
tells his Kolkata friends his final decision to marry one
particular girl in village in Comilla. His friends were all
appalled. They thought it would be a disaster if he marries a
girl who is naïve and simple. For some strange reasons only
known to Nazrul and his would-be bride’s own folks, the marriage
never solemnized (some say that he married the girl but only to
fled the house where the marriage was supposed to be
consummated). However, that did not put a roadblock to Nazrul’s
desire to marry a girl from Comilla. Beforehand he befriended a
Hindu teenage in Comilla. Nazrul went to that girl’s home and
expressed his desire to girl’s mother to marry the girl. He was
a born Muslim but the bride comes from a Hindu family. The
history is again silent about the way he married the girl. Was
it done in a Muslim way? Or did Nazrul tie the knot after
rotating seven times centering a holy pyre? Similar to his
enigmatic life Nazrul’s wedding to Pramila is also shrouded with
mystery. The marriage did not solve his worldly problems may be
it exacerbated his hardship. His life was not meant to be
serene and pristine one. The much sought after nuptial
blessings never came to his life. His nickname was “Dukhu Mia”
or “sorrowful man.” Therefore, rather than discussing his
personal life that had many incongruities we should dwell on his
literary output. Nazrul himself had said before that his
personal life should be kept separate from his literature. The
poet is famous for his literature and not for anything else. He
knew it fully well. Thus, it would be befitting to discuss
Nazrul’s poems, songs, short write-ups, etc., at this time.
Nazrul was such a odd personality that there are much confusion
about the year he was born. I have seen the years 1898, 1899,
and 1900 all being mentioned as his birth years. But it is
widely accepted now that he perhaps was born on Bangla Jaisthya
11, 1306 Bangla year (May 24, 1899).
Once I met an old man in the
village Kazir Shimla under Trishal Thana in Mymensingh,
Bangladesh. The villagers told me that he was a class friend of
Nazrul when the young poet spent some time going to high school
in that village. In a Mymensinghi dialect the old man told me
in 1965 that Nazrul was a fagla beta who could write poems from
his mind. Nazrul was a born poet no doubt who was also a self
taught person. After returning from a short stint somewhere in
the middle east (others say he never went to the middle east but
was trained in Sindh in western India) right after the armistice
was declared and the World War I ended abruptly on September 12,
1918 in central Europe.
The poet’s first collection of
poems were included in a book appropriately titled Agni Beena or
The Lute of fire that came out in 1922. This collection
contains two of his early masterpieces, namely, Bidrohi (The
Rebel) and Proloiullas (Elation at the breakup).
Nothing in the world could put
Nazrul into one place; he was perturbed by all the wrongs and
injustices surrounding him. He was like a volcano about to be
awakened. With a unbridled tongue he wrote poems that irritated
the British. So, he was locked up. He came out from the jail
and he targeted his poems against the ills of the society. He
badly wanted to reform the society. He volleyed his shots
against both the Mullahs and Hindu Brahmins. Some of his
contemporaries compared him with a comet (Bangla Dhumketu). He
was all in rage. His literary outputs for the period 1920
through 1928, often thought to be the most productive era, could
be found in the following books: Dolonchapa or Champak flower
(1923), Bisher Bansi or the Poison Flute (1924), Puber Hawa or
The East Wind (1925), and Bulbul or The Nightingale (1928). The
other collections are the following: Jinjir or Shackles,
Chakrabaak or Heron, Sandhya or Evening, Sindhu-Hindol or The
Swinging Sind River, Foni-Monsha or Cactus, Shorbohara or
Destitute, Jinge-Phool or Flower of Cucurbit, Samyabaadi or
Egalitarian, Bhangar Gaan or Song of Destruction, Chokher Chatak
or Eyes’ Crested Cuckoo, Ranga Jaba or Colored Hibiscus, Notun
Chand or New Moon, Moru-Bhaskor or Desert Sculptor, Jhor or
Storm, and many more unpublished poems and song lyrics.
It will be redundant for me to
discuss Nazrul’s famous poems from Agni Beena, Bisher Bashi or
even from Dolon Chapa. Therefore, I will concentrate on the
poems compiled in the booklet Jhinge Phool. This poem
collection contains 14 exquisitely written poems for children
that are wide recited all over Bengal even today. Any variety
performance will not be complete if it does not contain a
recitation from Jhinge Phool. It is that popular all over
Bengal.
The choice of the name Jhinge
Phool is also very appropriate and significant. We all know
what Jhinge is. It is a squash that grows throughout the year
and relished by most Bangalees. The fruit is ribbed and funny
looking. Nevertheless, how many of us have seen a Jhinge Phool.
The flower is very short-lived and it only blooms at the sun
down. It remains open all through the night and when morning
sun’s rays fall on the flower, it simply withers. To poet
Nazrul the kids are very similar to Jhinge Phool. Each and
every kid is as radiant as the Jhinge Phool is but childhood and
adolescence are short lived.
In this poem, Nazrul describes the
beauty of Jhinge Phool quite adequately. The yellow color of
the flower is compared with gold. It is pointed out that the
flower only blooms in the early evening. It did not escape the
rapt attention of Nazrul that in the gray days of Paush
(November-December) the Jhinge Phools dazzle the entire
vegetable patch. However, before the night is done the flower
wither in the vine and the stars call out loudly asking them to
join in the heaven. Nazrul being a mortal human being is
pleading to Jhinge Phool to stay in this world no matter how
pretty the heaven (Aloka) could be.
Indeed, Nazrul is unquestionably
the John Keats of Bengal. Both have unearthed the awesome
beauty of Mother Nature. Both were very much aware of the
frailties and impermanence of human life and things of
biological origin. Let us celebrate his 103rd birthday in a
poetic way by discussing the inherent beauty of his poems even
if it is from Jhinge Phool, which he wrote to bring happiness
among children of all ages and that includes me!
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Dr. A.H. Jaffor Ullah writes from
New Orleans. For comments write to:
Jaffor@netscape.net |
