Kazi Nazrul Islam

24 May 1899 - 29 August 1976 / Bardhaman / India

Those Iron Gates Of Prison

Destroy those iron gates of prison,
demolisth the blood-stained stony altars
of chain worshipping!
O youthful Shiva,
blow your horn of universal cataclysm!
Let the flag of destruction
rise amidst the rubble of prison walls
of the East! !
Play the music of the festival of Shiva!
Who's the master? Who's the king?
Who is it
that punishes the truth of freedom?
Ha! Ha! Ha! It's a laugh-
God is to be hanged?
Rumor-monger-
who teaches this pitiful 'trugh'?
O you forgetful Madman -
shake - shake the prisons
with your forceful cataclysmic pulls!
Send your Haidari call,
play your war-drums-
call Death
towards Life!
There, the Baishakhi storm is dancing-
are you just going to sit through your days?
Let's see
you shake up the foundation
of that terrible prison.
Kick - break the locks!
All those prisons-
set them on fire,
burn them down, uproot them forever!
Translation: Sajed Kamal
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