Dhono Dhanne Pushpe Bhora (English Translation)

 

During the 1940s, a new trend of Bengali songs, known as Gana Sangeet, or people’s songs became popular in Bengal and its suburbs. It was popularized by those patriots who were against the British oppression on the then hapless natives of the British Indian Empire. These songs were imbued with a patriotic fervour and aimed for the freedom of the natives from the exploitation of the Indians.

From birth, Sri Dwijendralal Roy had an interest in music and he was initially trained in classical music by his father, who was a pioneer amongst the Bengali classical vocalists. While he was in England, he trained himself in western music too. In those times, Sri D. L. Roy was considered a Bengali Poet, playwright and musician known primarily for his Bengali patriotic songs.

During this period Rabindranath Tagore, Mukundo Das, and Kazi Nazrul Islam would compose their patriotic songs and the output of Sri D.L. Roy as well as his contemporary Rajanikant wereno less. The Swadeshi Movement and the Partition of Bengal in 1905, during the time of the cursed Curzon, inspired and fired the imagination of Sri D.L. Roy to compose songs of patriotism, nationalism which reflected the earthiness of Bengal. He had composed about 500 songs, including “Bango Amar Jononi Amar” and “Oi Moha Shindhur Opar Thekey” apart from “Dhana Dhanya Pushpa Bhara”.

Like the compositions of Rabindranath Tagore, Rabindrasangeet, Dwijendralal’s compositions are known as Dwijendrageeti. Roy’s songs ere exemplified by reality, splendour, joyfulness of life and has become a part of the Bengali bhadhratha.(Bengali ethos).

A prominent littérateur of Modern India, he passed away on May 17th 1913 in Calcutta.

Unlike many others his death was a great loss to the Indians, both in Bengal and in other parts of India.

He is still remembered and respected for his sheer dedication for the improvement of Bengali Literature and motivating thousands of Bengalis to participate in the Indian Freedom Movement.

If your eyes well up, and you shed tears unabashedly, that is as it should be. It is one of the undying characteristics of one who loves his Motherland. Do not be a coward. Let the tears roll on your cheeks and fall on the Motherland and wash away all our sins! 

Fields of golden grains, meadows of fragrant flowers,
Two delights from earth of her many natural treasures,
Nestled within is a place divine set far above all measures,
Created from dreams anchored by memories,
Nowhere else a place of such luminous glories,
This the Queen of all lands on earth,

This the land of my birth, the hallowed land of my birth,
This place a beacon, bright as sun, moon and stars of heaven,
A glowing inviting vessel under the churns of darkening skies,
A magical land whose crooning birds awaken me to the morning light,
And the same melodious sounds bid me into the night,
Whose birds suckle nectar from blossoming flowers
Then nest underneath for their nightly shelter,
The soothing serenity of its rivers that glisten,
And the distant hazes of its mountains jut the horizon,
Its land bursting with the glow of blooms ablaze,
And fusing with the sky into an enchanted place,
Its fields of grains stir as ripples of waves,
Played upon by the gentle winds in their seasonal embrace,
This bond that tugs, rivals love for a brother or mother,
I yearn we not separate but forever stay together,
This land that nourished and nurtured me from birth,
How I wish this be the place of my final breath on earth.

- Translated by Zakariya Mohyuddin