The Doyel Pakhir Ganer Khata’ or ‘Magpie-Robin’s Songbook’ is an album featuring seven songs from the Bangladeshi War of Independence of 1971. These beautiful songs of liberation are sung anew by Aseer Arman, Boga Taleb, Sahana Bajpaie, Samantak Sinha, Sohini Alam, and the Year 4 students of Manorfield Primary School in Tower Hamlets, and arranged with rich instrumentation from around the world – dotara, daf, oud, guitar, banjo and more.
The album is being produced by Global Music Academy director Georgie Pope along with her husband, the writer and academic Somnath Batabyal.
Listen on YouTube
Listen on Soundcloud
Or listen to individual tracks using the links below
- O Buri Ganga Nadire (Sohini Alam, UK x Bangladesh)
- Aakash Kande Batas Kande (Sahana Bajpaie, W Bengal)
- O Mor Banglare (Samantak Sinha, W Bengal)
- Ebaar Uthechhey Mahajhar (By the students of Manorfield Primary School, UK, and Khiyo)
- Hazar Bachhor Parey (Sahana Bajpaie, W Bengal)
- Tora Dekh Asiya Re (Boga Taleb, Bangladesh)
- Shono Ekti Mujiburer (Aseer Arman, Bangladesh)
Translations by Arunava Sinha
O Buri Ganga Nadire (Sohini Alam, UK x Bangladesh)
Oh Buriganga, oh my river
I cannot row my boat now on your currents if I try
Your water is red with blood, my oars only cry
The enemy came from yonder land, pretending to rule
Our people killed each other, friendship was for fools
Slaughtered at their mothers’ breasts
Dropped where the tide runs high
Your water is red with blood, my oars can only cry
Is this your verdict, Allah, in this terrible time
A million Mujiburs have died, what was their crime?
My little boat has drifted away on my tears
It will return to a free land with no fears
I cannot ply these oars anymore
I cannot ply these oars anymore
I’m left high and dry
Your water is red with blood, my oars can only cry
Oh Buriganga, oh my river
I cannot row my boat now on your currents if I try
Your water is red with blood, my oars can only cry
Aakash Kande Batas Kande (Sahana Bajpaie, W Bengal)
The sky weeps, the wind weeps too
The sky weeps, the wind weeps too
How they pine for you
They weep so much they cannot see
Rushenara, the nation weeps for you
As long as in these fields of ours
Golden rice stalks sway
The boatman will croon for you as he rows away
The minstrel too will write his songs for you
Rushenara, the nation weeps for you
In letters of blood you did write your name
No storm or rain can ever put out your flame
Whose wife were you, to whom were you born,
You’re Bangla’s daughter, everyone has sworn
Guide the night-time traveller, morning star,
The nation weeps for you, Rushenara
The nation weeps for you, Rushenara
O Mor Banglare (Samantak Sinha, W Bengal)
Oh my Bangla, my own
Oh my tongue, my own
Oh my Bangla, my own
Oh my tongue, my own
I speak in your language
On this verdant land
I’m singing in your melody
With so much joy, my own
Oh my Bangla, my own
Oh my tongue, my own
Bangla is my twinkling eye
Bangla is my tongue
Bangla is my birthplace
Where my hopes are sung
Oh my Bangla, my own
Oh my tongue, my own
How much it hurts to love you
I never know before
Every time I remember you
I feel the pain much more
Oh my Bangla, my own
Oh my tongue, my own
I gave my blood I gave my life
In the hope of getting you
All those boys were martyred
Because they loved you
Oh my Bangla, my own
Oh my tongue, my own
Oh my Bangla, my own
Oh my tongue, my own
Ebaar Uthechhey Mahajhar (Students of Manorfield Primary School, UK, and Khiyo)
Now blows a tempest turbulent
In every single home in the land
Fires rage in every habitation
In this quiet nest where dreams stand
Now blows a tempest turbulent
In every single home in the land
Fires rage in every habitation
In this quiet nest where dreams stand
Now blows a tempest turbulent
See the fields of blood my home lies under
I sing out loud in a voice of thunder
I was born beside the Padma river
I was born beside the Padma river
Fires rage in every habitation
In this quiet nest where dreams stand
Now blows a tempest turbulent
On the road to freedom do we tread
A dark and violent night lies ahead
We have vowed to die or to be free
We deny all the arguments for slavery
Now we arise in Mujib’s voice
Now we arise in Mujib’s voice
Fires rage in every habitation
In this quiet nest where dreams stand
Now blows a tempest turbulent
In every single home in the land
Fires rage in every habitation
In this quiet nest where dreams stand
Now blows a tempest turbulent
See also this video of Ebaar Uthechhey Mahajhar with English subtitles.
Hazar Bachhor Parey (Sahana Bajpaie, W Bengal)
A thousand years later
I have returned here
To stand on Bangla’s soil again
I bring heartfelt love from both sides
Once more I stretch out my arms
A thousand years later
I have returned here
To stand on Bangla’s soil again
I see blue skies, I see white clouds
A jasmine fragrance swaying in the breeze
That old familiar shaded forest path
Plays hide and seek now, lost and found
A thousand years later
I have returned here
To stand on Bangla’s soil again
Touched by tunes, all those untold tales
Turn to songs that move my heart
My pain and sorrows are all swept away
By these tears from a single joy
I’ve seen again that moist pair of eyes
A gathering weariness in its golden beams
In your call I hear the call of life
Coming from the other side of death
A thousand years later
I have returned here
To stand on Bangla’s soil again
I bring heartfelt love from both sides
Once more I stretch out my arms
A thousand years later
I have returned here
To stand on Bangla’s soil again
Tora Dekh Asiya Re (Boga Taleb, Bangladesh)
Come see all of you
Bangladesh is free today
Come see all of you
Bangladesh is free today
Glory days have flown in
On the two-toned flag today
Come see all of you
Bangladesh is free today
The background oh it talks of a green land
And in the middle a new sun has risen
And in the middle a new sun has risen
Sheikh Mujib’s golden land has brought
A new day to us all
Come see all of you
Bangladesh is free today
Come see all of you
Bangladesh is free today
This is the land where brave Mujib was born
Where Rushenara had to shed her blood
This is the land where brave Mujib was born
Where Rushenara had to shed her blood
Where Ram and Rahim died for our honour
Come see all of you
Bangladesh is free today
Come see all of you
Bangladesh is free today
Bangladesh is free today, time to take a vow
To sacrifice our needs for the country
To sacrifice our needs for the country
To keep this flag flying above everything forever
Come see all of you
Bangladesh is free today
Come see all of you
Bangladesh is free today
Glory days have flown in
On the two-toned flag
Bangladesh is free today
Come see all of you
Bangladesh is free today
Shono Ekti Mujiburer (Aseer Arman, Bangladesh)
Oh hark! From a single Mujibur
A million Mujibur voices’ sounds resound
In sky and air as battlecries.
Bangladesh, my Bangladesh
Bangladesh, my Bangladesh
Where country trails cut through the green
There I will return and claim
Once again the Bangla I had lost.
Where in art or poetry anywhere
Will you find gold mines like ours?
Oh hark! From a single Mujibur
A million Mujibur voices’ sounds resound
In sky and air as battlecries
Bangladesh, my Bangladesh
This is Tagore’s land of gold
This is Nazrul’s Bangladesh
Jibanananda’s lovely Bangla
This beauty knows no end, Bangladesh
Oh hark! From a single Mujibur
A million Mujibur voices’ sounds resound
In sky and air as battlecries
Bangladesh, my Bangladesh
Oh my heart, why do you still wait
To cry Joy Bangla, I will claim
Once again the Bangla I had lost
After dark, in east the day will dawn
Oh hark! From a single Mujibur
A million Mujibur voices’ sounds resound
In sky and air as battlecries
Bangladesh, my Bangladesh
Bangladesh, my Bangladesh