ফসল গিয়েছে পেকে,
দিনান্ত আপন চিহ্ন দিল তারে পাণ্ডূর আভায়।
         আলোকের ঊর্ধ্বসভা হতে
    আসন পড়িছে নুয়ে ভূতলের পানে।
         যে মাটির উদ্‌বোধন বাণী
              জাগায়েছে তারে একদিন,
         শোনো আজি তাহারই আহ্বান
                আসন্ন রাত্রির অন্ধকারে।
  সে মাটির কোল হতে যে দান নিয়েছে এতকাল
      তার চেয়ে বেশি প্রাণ কোথাও কি হবে ফিরে দেওয়া
         কোনো নব জন্মদিনে নব সূর্যোদয়ে!

AT YOUTH'S coronation, Kalidasa,
You took your seat, your beloved by your side,
in Love's primal paradise.
Earth spread its emerald-green carpet beneath your feet,
the sky held over your heads
its canopy gold-embroidered;
the seasons danced round you
carrying their wine cups of varied allurements,
the whole universe yielded itself to your loneliness of delight,
leaving no trace of human sorrows and sufferings
in the immense solitude of your bridal chamber.
Suddenly God's curse descended from on high
hurling its thunderbolt of separation
upon the boundless detachment of youth's egotism.
The seasons' ministry in a moment was ended
When the veil was wrenched from love's isolation,
and on the tear-misted sky appeared the pageantry
of the rainy world of June
across which journeyed the sad notes of your bereaved heart
towards a distant dream.

FREEDOM FROM fear is the freedom I claim for you, my Motherland!-fear, the phantom demon, shaped by your own distorted dreams;
Freedom from the burden of ages, bending your head, breaking your back, blinding your eyes to the beckoning call of the future;
Freedom from shackles of slumber wherewith you fasten yourself to night's stillness, mistrusting the star that speaks of truth's adventurous path;
Freedom from the anarchy of destiny, whose sails are weakly yielded to blind uncertain winds, and the helm to a hand ever rigid and cold as Death;
Freedom from the insult of dwelling in a puppet's world, where movements are started through brainless wires, repeated through mindless habits; where figures wait with patient obedience for a master of show to be stirred into a moment's mimicry of life.