The drum sounded in the east; the famine of happiness has spread;

Who is there to put out the fire of the suffering; all the water-tanks have dried up.

The hands which once polished pearls are today begging, O friend;

Today they are beggars

Bengal is hungry, O friend, Bengal is hungry.

.

Thousands, their stomachs touching their spines, lie on stretchers;

They descend the ghats of death, tired of begging, of rising prices;

O friend, the poor are sitting on the border of life and death;

The poor are sitting

Bengal is hungry, O friend, Bengal is hungry.

.

In canals, streets and lanes, heaps of dead bodies, lamentations

Commerce cheapened life, such a valuable thing

The price of a handful of rice is hiked up, O friend

  The price is hiked up

Bengal is hungry, O friend, Bengal is hungry.

.

Whole families fled their looted homes

Mothers endlessly weeping, orphaned children terrified

O friend, wives continually turned into widows, the child’s head bashed in;

The child’s head bashed in

Bengal is hungry, O friend, Bengal is hungry.

.

The country is reduced to eating leaves

How many veils is death taking, altering thousands of appearances

The angel of death is spreading the net of sickness, O friend

The net of sickness

Bengal is hungry, O friend, Bengal is hungry.

.

~~~~

.

The bosom of Mother Earth is struck with a fatal wound;

Terrible times, ensnared in the grips of Illusion and Kali;

O friend, O lover of sleep, wake up now; look at the plight of the world;

Look at the plight of the world

Bengal is hungry, O friend, Bengal is hungry.#

.

Don’t worry, sweet Mother; we are coming;

We will fill your lap with golden nectar-fields;

We will drive famine away with blood and sweat, with sickle and plough, O friend;

We will drive famine away

Bengal is hungry, O friend, Bengal is hungry.

.

From: Jaras (Bell). Lucknow: Danish Mahal. 1950. pp. 121 – 24