Purano Shei Diner Kotha - English

I am not a very great fan of Tagore or his compositions even though I belong to the same place where he composed most of them. Neither do I profess great love for the culture, poetry and music of the same language. But there are certain compositions to which I am plainly attracted to.

The one which will be talked about here is an absolute poetry which is played with music or not can beat the best of the class.

This is a song very close to my heart, by Rabindranath Tagore titled "Purano shei diner kotha" inspired from the tunes of "Auld Lang Syne", a Scottish poem composed by Robert Burns. I made an attempt to translate the same into English. Forgive me if I was unable to preserve the beauty of the song. Also this is not an exact text translation. I tried my best. The Bengali text follows:

"Purano shei diner kotha
Bhulbe kii re
Hai o shei chokher dekha, praaner kotha
Sheikii bhola jaaye

Aaye aar ektibar aayre shokha
Praner majhe aaye mora
Shukher dukher kotha kobo
Praan jodabe tai

Mora bhorer bela phuul tulechi, dulechi dolaaye
Bajiye baanshi gaan geyechi bokuler tolai
Hai majhe holo chadachadi, gelem ke kothaye,
Abaar dekha jodi holo shokha, praner majhe aaye"

And here goes the English Translation:

The memories of the good old days
Can you ever forget it?
It was seen by our eyes, was voice of our life
Can it ever be forgotten?

Come back once more, my friend
Come and be a part of my life
We will talk of smiles and tears
And will feel very good about it

Together we have plucked flowers in the dawn
Together we have spent hours on the swing
Together we have played the flute
Sang the songs under the shade
We parted in between, never knew where we went
If again I see you someday,
Come and be a part of my life.

This song is about nostalgia, about loss of old friends and hope to meet them again, about the memories that always stay inside and seldom come out and play melody with our heart. It is remembering those old times and wishing them back. For friends that we lost while we were too busy with ourselves, while we were entangled by life, torn by time and just grew up relentlessly, only to realise one day what actually we have lost.

This is dedicated to all my friends that I have lost somehow and especially to my best friend!


Download this song at (right click and save link): 
http://www.music.com.bd/download/Music/H/Hemanta/Hemanta%20Collections/Hemanta%20-%20Purano%20Sei%20Diner%20Katha%20(music.com.bd).mp3.html