Nazrul's ‘Lakshan Geet' translations to be on display

Time of India

2 days ago

Kolkata: Celebrating the completion of Kazi Nazrul Islam's 125th birth anniversary, Jibansmriti Archive will showcase two of his rare manuscripts that trace his foray into writing 'Lakshan Geet' in Bengali.
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This is the first time manuscripts of Nazrul's translation of 'Lakshan Geet', to be put up at an exhibition from June 1 to 4, will be displayed for free public viewing.
Founder and curator of Jibansmriti Archive Arindam Saha Sardar told TOI Raja Nawab Ali's 'Marif-ul-Naghmat', written in Arabic-influenced Urdu, probably came into Nazrul's possession in the mid-1930s. "Nazrul deciphered the contents of this book despite the language barrier.
It remains unknown whether he sought help from an Urdu speaker. In this book, the poet chanced upon invaluable classical music resources, including 'Lakshan Geet' for over 150 ragas.
His 'Sur o Shruti' is a slightly condensed Bengali translation of some portions of the book, 'Swar o Shruti'. This section has his translation of 'Lakshan Geet' into Bengali," Sardar said.
'Lakshan Geet' in Hindi refers to a song, the lyrics of which describe the complete characteristics of a raga.
In the fag end of his life, Nazrul took to writing 'Lakshan Geet' in Bengali. He wrote six songs, one on each of the six 'thaat' of Indian classical music. But he fell ill soon after.
In 2023, author and Nazrul researcher Ziad Ali donated two pages of the manuscript of Nazrul's 'Sur o Shruti' to the archive's Nazrul-Bhandar section. "These pages of Nazrul's translation of 'Lakshan Geet' were donated for preservation and to promote the study of Nazrul. The pages testify to the depth of the poet's constant exploration and experimentation in classical music. We are yet to get Nazrul's 'Lakshan Geet' manuscripts though they are available in the printed format," he said.