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Eternal beauty of Nazrul’s works

M.Mizanur Rahman :

Nazrul's eternity of beauty and truth as manifested in his literary works is supposed to be nature-oriented. His artistic forms, sequence and style in poetry and his composition of various innumerable songs are having acute sense of purpose embellished with due rhymes and rhapsodies in excellent tones and tunes. However, in all forms, his coining of words with appropriate metaphors, similes, syntax and syncopation seem to have been made marvelous. And all these qualities along with objective ideals he could reach the climax of his readers' unparalleled appreciation. What his desired end was his eternity symbolising the core of universal humanitarianism. In this context his man and woman work at par in all performances of worldly affairs. Nazrul sings in ebullience :

"I sing of equality-
that there's nothing said to be great and glorious
than the human.

He(God) remains relative of everyone
at every time, in each abode, in every place
for every nation
distinguishing none of the time, people and place
in the sense of relativity!"...

He has tuned the song of this relativity in his poem, 'The Woman'-
           
"I sing of equality-
        In my eyes there's no distinction
        between man and woman.
        Whatever good and beneficial works have been done
for human beings in this world,
the half of them have been done by the woman
and the other half done by man..."

Nazrul had his commitment to his people and the country as a poet and writer   to bring about peoples' awareness and to fight against the oppressors who made them poor depriving them of their minimum subsistence by exploiting their hard labour. He exhorted-
        "Awake, you, the oppressed unfortunate.
        Strike the oppressors with weapons of thunder.
        This is the bidding of the New World
        which has come into existence..."

 He understood his eternity and the tremendous force of creation and destruction of this man is irresistible. Nazrul created his great poem,  'The Rebel' in which he characterised the indomitable spirit of man to rise above his powerful soul. To his power the Himalayan peaks do bow down.
But his struggle is there. That is indomitable spirit of the human, who once lost the Paradise but regained it by means of his/her undaunted perseverance. What Milton cries out in his "Paradise Lost":
   
"Of Man's first disobedience and the fruit
Of that forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste
           
Brought death into the world, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,
Sing Heavenly Muse...."

Since human struggle for existence has been continued, no exception of it can be discerned. As human beings are born free yet they are in chains everywhere, they are to set themselves free from every bond no matter how many skies fall overhead. All barriers and impediments that stand on their ways to peaceful life must be overcome. Shelley sketched in his 'Prometheus Unbound' as saying-

"We have passed Age's icy caves,
And Manhood's dark and tossing waves,
And Youth's smooth ocean, smiling to betray;
Beyond the glassy gulfs we flee
Of shadow-peopled Infancy,
Through Death and Birth..."

As a matter of fact Nazrul is a romantic poet. His ultimate goal is love like any other great poet of the world. But what makes him rebellious? He got the cause before him. At that time his country India was under the foreign subjugation where injustice, exploitation, misrule and oppression of the people had been prevailing. Especially the downtrodden ones were teeming millions for whom Nazrul spoke virulently against the oppressive rulers of any measure. In fighting for the people in his literary works he had to be languished in jail and some of his printed books and edited news papers were proscribed. But he was not subdued, because his eternity of beauty and truth inspired him to raise his head high above every sphere:

"Say, O Hero,
My head's raised ever high!"...
In this perspective we may recall Shelley :
"All else had been subdued to me; alone
The soul of man, like extinguished fire,
Yet burns towards heaven with fierce reproach, and doubt
And lamentation, and reluctant prayer
Hurling up insurrection, which might make secure,
Our antique empire in though built
On eldest faith...."

Actually Nazrul was much more romantic than rebellious in his trend of literary movement. He did not like human bloodshed. And it is evident that he remained restless due to human folly of such clashes between each other for certain trifling interests. He, at last, said:

"I would be calm that day
when the cry of the oppressed
would never rend the sky
and air,
When the brandishing weapons of death of the tyrants
would not be rattled in the fiercest battle field,
I would be calm that day...."
Otherwise his eternity of being chanted love songs melodiously which were played on in his Bengali Bamboo-flute. Notwithstanding his chorus of marvelous rhymes go on thus:

"I am shining, I am brilliantly shone,
I am the restless