A Tribute To Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar Poem by CHANDRANI SAHA NANDI

A Tribute to Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar

Chandrani Saha Nandi

O ardent spirit of truth!
Your argent ardour has burnt
Every social custom,
Full of inhuman superstition.
You destroyed polygamy and saved
The girls widowed and starved
From becoming prostitutes, a profession, mean.
O reverend polymath! O wisdom's ocean!
Your assault to the base of religious orthodoxy
Which compelled the widow
To sit atop of her husband's pyre
To burn herself by devouring fire,
Has saved the girls, downtrodden, weak.
A real teacher, a boon for social cause,
A human-lover who never pause
To reform everything unlit
In social customs by insight.
Your simplification of Bengali alphabet,
O great teacher! your endeavour to educate
The common Bengalees can never be forgotten.
You are real tiger of Blake's art
That is burning in darkness's midst
To ruin the darkness with fiery boldness
That knows to stand alone
In the midst of adverse situation.
Great teacher, teach us more!
You manly benefactor!