Ei Monihaar Amay - Lyrics & Translation

Lyrics 


Ei monihaar aamaye naahi saaje 
Ere porte gele laage, 
Ere chhinrte gele baaje 

Kanthha je rodh kore, 
Soor to naahi sore, 
Oi dike je mon pore roye, Mon laage na kaaje 

Taayito boshe aachhi, 
E haar tomay poraayi jodi, 
Tobeyi aami baanchi 

PhulO maalar dore, 
Boriya lao more 
Tomaar kaachhe dekhayina mookh monimalaar laaje. 

এ মণিহার আমায় নাহি সাজে 
পর্যায় : পূজা 

এ মণিহার আমায় নাহি সাজে- 
এরে পরতে গেলে লাগে, 
এরে ছিঁড়তে গেলে বাজে ।। 

কন্ঠ-যে রোধ করে, 
সুর তো নাহি সরে- 
ওই দিকে যে মন প'ড়ে রয়, মন লাগে না কাজে ।। 

তাই তো বসে আছি, 
এ হার তোমায় পরাই যদি 
তবেই আমি বাঁচি । 

ফুলমালার ডোরে 
বরিয়া লও মোরে 
তোমার কাছে দেখাই নে মুখ মণিমালার লাজে ।। 

রাগ: ইমনকল্যাণ

তাল: একতাল

রচনাকাল (বঙ্গাব্দ): ৮ ভাদ্র, ১৩২০

রচনাকাল (খৃষ্টাব্দ): ২৪ অগাস্ট, ১৯১৩

রচনাস্থান: Chyene Walk, লন্ডন

স্বরলিপিকার: ইন্দিরা দেবী, দিনেন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর

Translation 

This jeweled necklace doesn't suits me. 
When I wear it, it hurts me. 
When I tear it, it mocks me. 

My neck it strangles. My strains it shackles. 
My attention it steals. No work could be done by me. 

So I sit idly. 
If only I could return this jeweled lei. Then only it relieves me. 

With a flower bouquet. 
Welcome my soul wretched. 
I couldn't face you for this necklace shamed me. 


© Translation in English by Deepankar Choudhury 

P.S: A general notion exists that Tagore wrote this song in protest of Jallianwala Baug massacre which is not true.

This song was written on 24th August, 1913 and the incident occurred on 13th April, 1919.

Tagore surrendered his knighthood on 30th May, 1919. 

At that time he was in Calcutta, India only. (now Kolkata).

Somehow, it took one and half months for him to protest against such an heinous act of the British.

This is the historic letter. 

The letter written by Rabindranath Tagore to Lord Chelmsford, the British viceroy, repudiating his Knighthood in protest for Jalianwalla Bagh mass killing.

Your Excellency,

The enormity of the measures taken by the Government in the Punjab for quelling some local disturbances has, with a rude shock, revealed to our minds the helplessness of our position as British subjects in India. The disproportionate severity of the punishments inflicted upon the unfortunate people and the methods of carrying them out, we are convinced, are without parallel in the history of civilised governments, barring some conspicuous exceptions, recent and remote.


Considering that such treatment has been meted out to a population, disarmed and resourceless, by a power which has the most terribly efficient organisation for destruction of human lives, we must strongly assert that it can claim no political expediency, far less moral justification. The accounts of the insults and sufferings by our brothers in Punjab have trickled through the gagged silence, reaching every corner of India, and the universal agony of indignation roused in the hearts of our people has been ignored by our rulers- possibly congratulating themselves for imparting what they imagine as salutary lessons.

This callousness has been praised by most of the Anglo-Indian papers, which have in some cases gone to the brutal length of making fun of our sufferings, without receiving the least check from the same authority, relentlessly careful in something every cry of pain of judgment from the organs representing the sufferers. Knowing that our appeals have been in vain and that the passion of vengeance is building the noble vision of statesmanship in out Government, which could so easily afford to be magnanimous, as befitting its physical strength and normal tradition, the very least that I can do for my country is to take all consequences upon myself in giving voice to the protest of the millions of my countrymen, surprised into a dumb anguish of terror.

The time has come when badges of honour make our shame glaring in the incongruous context of humiliation, and I for my part, wish to stand, shorn, of all special distinctions, by the side of those of my countrymen who, for their so called insignificance, are liable to suffer degradation not fit for human beings.

And these are the reasons which have compelled me to ask Your Excellency, with due reference and regret, to relieve me of my title of knighthood, which I had the honour to accept from His Majesty the King at the hands of your predecessor, for whose nobleness of heart I still entertain great admiration. Yours faithfully,

Yours faithfully,

Rabindranath Tagore
Calcutta, May 30, 1919