Explain: “And, by the incantation of this verse, ............... If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”

Explain:

“And, by the incantation of this verse,

Scatter, as from an unextinguish'd hearth

Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!

Be through my lips to unawaken'd earth

The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,

If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”

Ans: In the concluding lines of the Ode to the West Wind, the poet invokes the energy of the west wind to regenerate him. He compares himself to the autumnal forest; like the forest he is in the 'sear', the yellow leaf of life." Hence, in this stanza he asks the wind to draw out from his mind the music that has been lying latent in him. The music like the autumnal music may be sad and sweet. But the music roused in him will create a powerful effect on humanity just as storm in the autumnal forest produces fierce noise. He wants to imbibe the explosive force of the west wind which is the symbol of the revolution. He wishes to completely identify himself with the west wind. If the west wind breathes into the poet its fierce and tameless energy, he would compose poems, whose magic of music will scatter his ideas and vision of a regenerate humanity all over the world. The poet then compares his mind to a hearth, which is glimmering with ideas; as the west wind scatters ashes and sparks from a hearth, so let it cast far and wide his ideas which are full of hopes for a regenerate humanity. Just as withered leaves quicken a new birth so his dead thoughts will bring in a regenerate humanity by the power of the west wind which is the symbol of revolution. Just as unextinguished hearth scatters ashes and sparks, so his dimly burning mind will scatter his dead thoughts, and thoughts already expressed to the rotten world. He will scatter his prophetic ideas, his vision of a regenerate humanity with a deep, trumpet-like voice. Just as in Nature Winter passes away yielding place to Spring, so the old world will go, and in its place will come a new world laden with fresh and sweet promises for suffering humanity.

The critic Sharip beautifully observes; "Autumnal decay and the barrenness of Winter may make the world desolate, but beyond lies waiting the Spring of another year. It is the ebb and flow, the endless 'baffling change of the great tide of humanity, which Shelley sings, as well as the death and exit of dreary regenerative seasons."

Shelley here sings in exquisite melody of the advent of millennium. Possessed by the creative principle, his dead thoughts become ashes and sparks to feed a new conflagration. The poem ends on a note of hope and triumph

Explain: “Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud! ......... One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.”

Explain:

“Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!

I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!

A heavy weight of hours has chain'd and bow'd

One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.”

Ans: Shelley cries out in the anguish of his heart in the fourth stanza of the Ode to the West Wind. After describing the powerful impact of the west wind on earth, sky and sea, the poet passes to his own self. He is in sore need of the energizing influence of the west wind. Life and society have dealt roughly with him. Abandoned by the society, howled down by the critics, the poet feels that he is bleeding on the thorns of life. The weight of miseries has bent him to the ground. Hence his passionate appeal to the storm to lift him in the same manner as it has lifted the leaves of trees, the clouds of the sky and the waves of the sea. He wants to share the impetuosity and strength of the west wind. The poet also finds an affinity between his own soul and the storm. He, too, was one proud, impetuous and swift, but all his energies have been sapped by his struggle with the society. Therefore, the poet makes a passionate appeal to the west wind to breathe into him its energizing power.

In this stanza, the poet's own sense of oppression and constraint is related to wind's freedom and strength. The poet makes a magnificent union of himself with Nature and then passes to equally great self- description. He thus mingles himself and Nature together.

Explain: “Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams ........... All overgrown with azure moss and flowers So sweet, the sense faints picturing them!”

 Explain: 

“Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams

The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,

Lull'd by the coil of his crystalline streams,

Beside a pumice isle in Baiae's bay,

And saw in sleep old palaces and towers

Quivering within the wave's intenser day,

All overgrown with azure moss and flowers

So sweet, the sense faints picturing them!”

Ans: In these lines Shelley describes the effect of the west wind on the sea. In Summer the Mediterranean remains perfectly calm under a blue sky. Hence the poet imagines that it falls asleep, being caught up in the whirling round of its clear and transparent water. Probably in its sleep it dreams of the ruined palaces and towers of the city of Baiae, which once stood on its shore and is now submerged in the sea. These ruins quiver gently when seen through the slight motion of the waves in the Summer weather. They are also overgrown with vegetation and sea-flowers, the fragrance of which is so intense that the senses are overpowered even in imagining it But in Autumn, the west wind rouses the sea from its summer repose and ruffles it with high waves.

These lines give an iridescent picture of the west wind. The poet imaginatively pictures the west wind as rousing the Mediterranean from his summer sleep. In other words, the Mediterranean which remains calm during Summer is terribly agitated when the west wind of Autumn blows through it. 

These lines testify to Shelley's myth-making power. The blue Mediterranean is personified and pictured as a sea-god sleeping and dreaming the whole Summer. He creates myths and relations just as the Greek did.

Explain: “Thou dirge Of the dying year, ........... Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst: oh hear!”

Explain:

“Thou dirge

Of the dying year, to which this closing night

Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre,

Vaulted with all thy congregated might

Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere

Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst: oh hear!”

Ans: In these lines taken from the second stanza of Shelley's Ode to the West Wind, the west wind is pictured as a mighty destroyer. The west wind blows in Autumn; the year begins to die. As the poet hears the tumult of the wind, it seems to him to sing the knell of the year. As the year will die soon, its tomb has also been built. The black night sky, overcast with the dense mass of clouds and vapours which will presently dissolve into rains, hail and lightning, will serve the purpose of the vault under which the dead year will lie buried. Stripped of metaphor, the lines may be said to give a vivid picture of an autumnal night. The sky is thick with the dense mass of black clouds and vapours; presently they will burst - rain, thunder, lightning and hail will follow, converting the earth into a vetirable inferno, while all the time the fierce storm will be rushing through the sky with a terrible wail. All these naturally suggest to the poet the thoughts of death, and he remembers, too, that Autumn, the season of nature's decay and death is just the beginning of the year.

Explain: “There are spread ............ The locks of the approaching storm.”

Explain:

“There are spread

On the blue surface of thine aëry surge,

Like the bright hair uplifted from the head

Of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim verge

Of the horizon to the zenith's height,

The locks of the approaching storm.”

Answer: These lines are quoted from the second stanza of Shelley's Ode to the West Wind. Here the poet describes in powerful images the impetuous rush of the west wind through the sky. The wind blows at first through a clear blue sky which is not clouded. But the gale gathers all the vapours and clouds in the horizon and they form a black mass stretching from the horizon to the highest point in the sky. The sky is darkened and all spaces are filled with clouds. The wavy clouds are imagined by the poet as the locks of the approaching storm-god. The picture recalls to the mind of Shelley the classical imagery of the Maenads, who were the female worshippers of Bacchus, the Greek god of wine. As these female worshippers of Bacchus danced about in their frenzy and killed the wild animals as sacrifices to their god, their hair was tossed up, giving them a fierce look. Similarly, the wild masses of clouds wavy and shaken look like the wild dishevelled hairs on the head of some fierce intoxicated female worshipper of Bacchus.

Here the wind is pictured in its stormy and terrible aspect. It gives a magnificent image of riotous elemental confusion. First there are the 'tangled boughs of heaven and ocean'; then the whole sky becomes the vast stage which is occupied by a single gigantic actor in the person of 'some fierce Maenad' whose locks are the full sky in storm. Here Shelley stresses the terrifying powers of destruction symbolised by the west wind.

Explain: “O thou, Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed ....................With living hues and odours plain and hill:”

Explain:

“O thou,

Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed

The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,

Each like a corpse within its grave, until

Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow

Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill

(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)

With living hues and odours plain and hill:”

Ans: In the first stanza of Shelley's Ode to the West Wind from which the lines are quoted, the poet describes the activities of the west wind on the earth. The west wind scatters the decayed leaves before it and deposits the seeds in their dark wintry beds till they awaken into life with the coming of the Spring wind. The west wind drives the seeds to dark and cold ground where they lie buried in the cold winter. The seeds lie still and seem to be lifeless like dead bodies in their graves. Warm and gentle west wind of Spring blows its trumpet and inspires new life into all Nature. Seeds also rise up into life as young plants. The gentle west wind compared to a shepherd and the seeds to sheep. Just as the shepherd takes the sheep to the pasture land, so the west wind of Spring takes the seeds out into air. The west wind plays the part of a preserver and destroyer.

These lines strike the keynote of the poem. The poem works out the theme of death and rebirth in powerful symbols. It is announced in the first stanza. The wind drives away the dead leaves and conducts the seeds, apparently cold and dead to their graves; but the graves are also the cradles in which they are to be reborn in the Spring.

Write a letter to your friend inviting him or her to spend holidays in your village.

Salkia,

Howrah,

12-11-22

My Dear Mrinal,

        Since long I have not heard anything from you. Hope you and all your family members are all well. Today I am going to give you a surprise invitation.

        If you have not made any plan for your next holidays this year perhaps you would like to come and stay with us here in our village. It would be a pleasant relief for you from the dust, smoke and loud noises of the city you live in. As soon as you step into my village, you will feel a great change in the atmosphere. You can breathe freely here. The eye feasts on the natural scenery with delight. Waking up in the morning you will hear songs of birds ringing into your ears. Sounds of tram, cars, buses, lorries and mikes here and there, will not disturb you here. If you are an early riser, you will be greeted by the rays of the morning sun. The fresh morning breeze that you will inhale will put fresh vigour into you. Life in a village is simple. You will not find here the restless competition that marks city life with its hurry and bustle. The chief attractions here are the silence and peace and the natural surroundings. I am sure you will realise that a vacation in the countryside is not a bad idea after all. Please come at least for a few days and spend your holidays here.

        No more today. Reply me soon about your feelings after receiving my letter. convey my regards to your parents.

Yours ever,

Sital

Bablaban

Santipur

Nadia

741404.

Write a letter to a friend telling him about your experience of a rainy day.

Borobajar,

Kalna,

Purba Bardhaman 

713420

My dear Som,

                        Since long, I was too busy to contact with you. Hope You are all well. But its my pleasure to receive your loving letter. You want me to describe a rainy day and my experience of the day. Here it is.        

                        It was a June morning. It started raining cats and dogs from early morning and I was observing it lying on my bed. The sky was overcast with clouds. I woke up and noticed that the roads and lanes were by the time water-logged. I felt happy that I would not have to go to school. Immediately after my breakfast, I began to watch the beautiful sights of rainfall. Pedestrians tucked up their clothes and trudged along the way which looked like a vast sheet of water. Vehicles were less on the road. I notice few buses on the road. They splashed water and proceeded towards their destinations. I enjoyed the fun. I came down stealthily and opened the door. I floated several paper boats on the water and the children of the locality also joined the game. We were all delighted and sang all the while. Many passers-by cursed the rain but we enjoyed the day to our hearts' content.

            No more today. Reply me soon about your feelings after receiving my letter. convey my regards to your parents.

Yours ever,

Sital

Bablaban

Santipur

Nadia

741404.

Bengali Translation of Sonnet 138: When My Love Swears That She Is Made Of Truth by William Shakespeare. শেক্সপিয়ারের সনেট ১৩৮ এর বঙ্গানুবাদ

Sonnet 138: When My Love Swears That She Is Made Of Truth,

William Shakespeare

When my love swears that she is made of truth,

I do believe her though I know she lies,

That she might think me some untutored youth,

Unlearned in the world's false subtleties.

যখন আমার প্রেমিকা দিব্যি দিয়ে বলে যে সে ভালোবাসায় সৎ

আমি তাকে বিশ্বাস করি যদিও আমি জানি সে মিথ্যা কথা বলছে

সে হয়তো আমায় মনে করে অনভিজ্ঞ যুবক

বা অশিক্ষিত এই মিথ্যার , ধূর্ত পৃথিবীতে।

Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,

Although she knows my days are past the best,

Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue:

On both sides thus is simple truth suppressed:

এইভাবে আমি অযথাই ভেবে যাচ্ছি যে সে আমায় এখনও যুবক ভাবে

যদিও সে জানে আমার যৌবনের দিন গুলি পার হয়ে গেছে

সোজা ভাবে বলতে, আমি তার মিথ্যা বলার জিহ্বা কে সন্মান দিচ্ছি

তাই উভয় দিক থেকেই আমরা সত্য কে চেপে রাখছিঃ

But wherefore says she not she is unjust?

And wherefore say not I that I am old?

O! love's best habit is in seeming trust,

And age in love, loves not to have years told:

কিন্তু কেন সে বলছে না যে সে অন্যায় করছে ?

এবং কেন সে বলছে না যে আমি বৃদ্ধ হয়ে গেছি?

ও! ভালোবাসায় বিশ্বাসের ভান করা টাই সবচেয়ে ভালো প্রথা

এবং ভালোবাসায় বৃদ্ধ প্রেমিক কখনই সঠিক করে বলে নাঃ

Therefore I lie with her, and she with me,

And in our faults by lies we flattered be.

তাই আমি তাকে মিথ্যা বলি এবং সে আমায় মিথ্যা বলে

এবং এই ভাবে আমরা উভয় ই মিথ্যার দ্বারা প্রতারিত হচ্ছি।

SUBSTANCE

Shakespeare is growing old, while his mistress is still young. His mistress tells him that she is in love with him, thus giving him the impression that he is still a young man. He believes her when she tells him that she loves him, even though he knows well that she has told him a lie. Thus there is a suppression of the truth on both sides. He does not frankly tell her that he is now an old man; and she does not frankly tell him that she does not really love him. Each of them thus tries to throw dust into the eyes of the other. The reason for this state of affairs is that both the man and the woman put up a pretence that they trust each other. And the result of this attitude on the two sides is that they enjoy sexual pleasure in each other's embraces and feel flattered thereby. Here, then, is a sonnet in which the truth about the supposed love between an old man and a younger woman has bluntly been stated. Shakespeare does not mince matters here. He has given us the right analysis of the working of the mind of a man who is old or who is growing old, and the working of the mind of a woman who is considerably younger. We all know that cases of true love in this world are very few as compared to the number of cases of pretended or false love. In most cases love is nothing more than lust, as in the present case dealt with by Shakespeare in this sonnet. But the sonnet is an interesting one, apart from being a revealing one. We feel pleased whenever any of our own beliefs is confirmed by a great author. Among its merits is the fact that this sonnet is most lucidly written and is thoroughly intelligible to us.

Bengali Translation of Sonnet 137: Thou Blind Fool, Love, What Dost Thou To Mine Eyes by William Shakespeare. শেক্সপিয়ারের সনেট ১৩৭ এর বঙ্গানুবাদ

Sonnet 137: Thou Blind Fool, Love, What Dost Thou To Mine Eyes

by

William Shakespeare

Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes,

That they behold, and see not what they see?

They know what beauty is, see where it lies,

Yet what the best is take the worst to be.

হে প্রেমের অন্ধ দেবতা কিউপিড,তুমি আমার চোখ দুটিকে কি করলে

যে তারা যা দেখছে সেগুলি অন্য জিনিস?

চোখ জানে সৌন্দর্য কী এবং সেটি কোথায় থাকে

তবুও সেই চোখ দুটি কেন খারাপ জিনিস কে ভালো হিসাবে দেখছে।

If eyes, corrupt by over-partial looks,

Be anchored in the bay where all men ride,

Why of eyes' falsehood hast thou forged hooks,

Whereto the judgment of my heart is tied?

যদি আমার চোখ দুটি প্রতারিত হয় প্রলভন কারী তোমার দৃষ্টির দ্বারা

তবুও আমার চোখ তোমার দিকেই আটকে থাকে যদিও আমি বলবো তুমি সকলের কাছে এখন গ্রহনীয়

হে প্রেমের দেবতা, কেন ঐ মিথ্যার চোখ শক্ত করে আটকে রাখে

আমার মনের ভাবনা গুলি কে?

Why should my heart think that a several plot,

Which my heart knows the wide world's common place?

Or mine eyes, seeing this, say this is not,

To put fair truth upon so foul a face?

কেন আমার হৃদয় ভাবে আমার প্রেমিকা হলো শুধু মাত্র আমার সম্পদ

যদিও আমার হৃদয় জানে আমার প্রেমিকা এখন সকলের সম্পদ?

অথবা আমার চোখ যা দেখে, ভিন্ন প্রকাশ করে

শুধু মাত্র প্রেমিকার মুখোশ ধারী মুখের ওপর নিস্পাপতা কে দেখানোর জন্য

In things right true my heart and eyes have erred,

And to this false plague are they now transferred.

সঠিক / সত্য নির্বাচনে আমার হৃদয় ও চোখ উভয় ই ভুল করেছে

এবং এই প্রতারনাকারী মহিলার প্রতি এখন চোখ ও হৃদয় উভয় ই নিজেদের কে পরিবর্তন করেছে।

Substance: This sonnet contains the idea that, although Shakespeare knows his mistress to have turned almost into a whore, he yet continues to regard her as a most beautiful woman and continues to love her in the same way as before. Thus his eyes and his heart seem to be at war with each other. His eyes can judge that his mistress is available to everybody for sexual pleasure; and yet his heart continues to feel attracted by what he regards as the beauty of that woman. Perhaps his eyes have developed a distorted vision and are mistaken in thinking his mistress to be beautiful. If that is so, then Cupid, the god of love who is himself blind, has played some trick upon Shakespeare, and has rendered his eyes incapable of judging the beauty of women correctly. In any case, Shakespeare in this sonnet brings a serious charge against the woman who had been his mistress but who has now, in his opinion, become a loose woman whose appetite for sexual pleasure has become insatiable. This is almost a defamatory sonnet; but, as Shakespeare has not named anyone, no charge of defamation could have been brought against him. In any case, this sonnet greatly lowers the dark lady in our eyes. This sonnet belongs to the category of those which have been written in a lucid and straightforward style.

Bengali translation of Sonnet 19: Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws by Shakespeare. শেক্সপিয়ারের সনেট ১৯ কবিতার বঙ্গানুবাদ।

 Sonnet 19: Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws

William Shakespeare

Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws,

And make the earth devour her own sweet brood;

Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws,

And burn the long-liv'd Phoenix in her blood;

হে সর্বগ্রাসী সময়/ মহাকাল,তুমি সিংহ -এর থাবা কে ভোঁতা করে দিতে পারো, 

এবং পৃথিবী সময়ের সাথে সাথে গ্রাস করে নেয় তার নিজের সন্তান / সুন্দর সৃষ্টি কে 

সময় হিংস্র বাঘের থাবা থেকে ছিনিয়ে নেয় বাঘের তীক্ষ্ণ দাঁত গুলি কে 

এবং সময় পুড়িয়ে ছাই করে দেয় দীর্ঘজীবী ফিনিক্স পাখি কেও 

Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleets,

And do whate'er thou wilt, swift-footed Time,

To the wide world and all her fading sweets;

But I forbid thee one more heinous crime:

সময়, তুমি দ্রুত অতিক্রান্ত হয়ে বিভিন্ন ঋতু গুলিকে কখনো খুশি করো আবার কখনো দুঃখী করো

সময়, তুমি মৃদু ভাবে এগিয়ে চলো এবং চলার পথে যা ইচ্ছা তুমি তাই করো

এই বিশাল পৃথিবীর সুন্দর জিনিস গুলিকে জীর্ণ করে দাও 

কিন্তু আমি তোমায় একটি ঘৃণ্য কাজ করতে নিষেধ করছি

O, carve not with thy hours my love's fair brow,

Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen!

Him in thy course untainted do allow

For beauty's pattern to succeeding men.

হে সময়, আমার প্রিয় বন্ধুর সুন্দর ভ্রু কে ক্ষতিগ্রস্ত করোনা 

এমন কি তোমার কলম / ক্ষমতার দ্বারা বন্ধুর মুখের ওপর বয়সের ছাপ এঁকে দিও না

তোমার চলার / এগিয়ে যাওয়ার সাথে সাথে আমার বন্ধু কে তুমি ছুয়ে যেওনা 

যাতে পরবর্তী প্রজন্ম-এর কাছে বন্ধুর সৌন্দর্যের একটি দৃষ্টান্ত হয়ে থাকে।

Yet do thy worst, old Time! Despite thy wrong

My love shall in my verse ever live young.

হে মহাকাল, এর পরও যদি তুমি  তোমার ধ্বংসাত্বক লীলা চালিয়ে যাও

তবুও আমার প্রিয় বন্ধুর সৌন্দর্য আমার কবিতার মধ্যে চির অমর হয়ে থাকবে। 

Substance: In sonnet 19, Shakespeare has presented Time as a devourer. Time has the power to swallow things. Time can deprive the claws of a lion of their sharpness; and Time can make the earth destroy its own offspring. It can snatch away the sharp teeth of the ferocious tiger from its jaws. Time  can destroy the phoenix by letting it burn itself to death even though it is a bird having a long life of several hundred years. It can, in the course of your swift passage, change the seasons, bringing about beautiful seasons and also ugly and depressing seasons. Time  may do whatever you please, you rapidly passing Time, to the whole world, and to all the world's beautiful things which must ultimately fade away. But the poet call upon Time not to commit one terrible and hateful crime. Poet forbids Time to produce, with your destructive powers, any wrinkles (indicative of old age) on the beautiful forehead of poet’s beloved friend. Time possess an ancient instrument with which it can produce wrinkles on the faces of human beings; but do not exercise that power in the case of poet’s friend. Poet wants Time to permit him to retain his face and features in their present youthful state and not to spoil them with wrinkles because poet wishes him to be regarded by the coming generations of people as a model of male beauty. And yet, ancient Time, the poet challenge Time to do the worst you can do to poet’s friend because, in spite of your destructive power, poet would see to it that his beloved friend retains his beauty for ever through these sonnets being written by Shakespeare. 

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MOON

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MOON

Hello, I am Moon. I have another name, Luna. I was formed 4.5 billion years ago. It was around 30 to 50 million years after the origin of the Solar System, out of debris thrown into orbit via a massive collision. This collision was probably between a smaller proto-Earth and another planetoid which was about the size of the planet Mars. In our solar system, almost all moons of all planets spin at the same rate as they orbit.

I am the brightest and largest object in your night sky, which makes your Earth a more liveable planet by moderating planet’s wobble on its axis. This in turn leads to a relatively stable climate in earth. Moreover, I also cause tides, which creates a rhythm that has guided humans for thousands of years.

While people find me to be very beautiful, it is not as beautiful as I appear to be. I am devoid of plants and animals and is not a suitable place for plants or animals. Thus, you do not see any form of life on my surface.

Similarly, human beings won’t be able to live on my surface. Like how your earth has an atmosphere, I don’t have. Thus, my days i.e. lunar days are quite hot and the lunar nights are very intense.

Similarly, while I may look beautiful from the earth, I don’t have a forbidding appearance. In other words, I am full of rocks and craters. In fact, even if you look at me from your naked eye, you can see some dark spots on me. They are dangerous rocks and craters. In addition, my gravitational pull is less than that of your planet earth. As a result, it will difficult to walk on my surface.

I have different phases as I move along my orbit around the earth. Basically, half of mine is always in sunlight so half the earth has day while the other half has night. Meaning to say, the phases of me depends on how much of the sunlit half you can see at any one time.

Ever since the beginning, man has been fascinated by my beauty. You have looked at me with wonder and it shows in the earlier works of poets and scientists. To reveal my mystery, scientists tried to study me.

Thus, a lot of attempts were made to send humans to me. On July 21, 1969, two Americans Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin made it to me. They got to walk on my surface and collect my rocks.

After that, those astronauts had a safe journey back to earth. A lot of American scientists have sent their men to me multiple times now. Thus, man has conquered me and it is not a mystery anymore.

To sum it up, I shine bright at night when the sun is not on duty. I shed my silver light which is very cool and refreshing. Moreover, I am extremely happy and proud to be a part of your solar system.