The Bengali language (native name bangla) belongs to the family of the Indo-Aryan languages and is spoken in the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura, besides Bangladesh (former East Bengal). With about 200 million speakers, Bengali is the sixth most spoken language in the world and the second most spoken language of India after Hindi. It has an important literary production, whose most outstanding personality is Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), Nobel Prize for literature in 1913, whose works were written in Bengali. The national anthems of India and Bangladesh were also written in Bengali, by Tagore himself.
Many of the Indian reform movements in religion, philosophy and politics of 19th and 20th centuries (the so called Bengal Renaissance) were leaded by Bengali persons.
The recent translation into Bengali of the Divine Comedy was done by Shyamalkumar Gangopadhyay and was published in 2011 at New Delhi.
See also the introduction to the category “Indiane (lingue)”, article “The Divine Comedy and the languages of India”, clicking here.
In that article verses 28-39 of canto XIV of Hell are reported (in the original and in the English translation by Bickersteth), where Dante describes the burning sand in which those who offer violence towards God are punished by being subjected to a continuous rain of fire. In doing this description the poet mentions India.
We thus report those same verses in the Bengali translation done by Shyamalkumar Gangopadhyay here below, followed by their translitteration in Latin characters.
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সকল সিকতারাশির উপরে মন্থর ধারাপাত
ঝরে আগুনের, স্ফারিত ফলকবর্ষী,
নামে যে ধারায় তুষারতবক আল্প্সের নির্বাত।
উষ্ণবলয়ে সিকান্দর যে ছিল সাক্ষাৎদর্শী,
শিখা ঝরে তার ব্যূহের উপরে, সেই হিন্দুস্থানে,
আভাঙা আকারে, যে পর্যন্ত না হয় ভূমিস্পর্শী।
পায়ের তলায় মাটি দলে যেতে সদলে যত্ন মানে
তাই সে, কারণ ছড়িয়ে না গিয়ে, ওই আগুনের ভাপ
আলাদা থাকলে, সহজ উপায় ধরে তার নির্বাণে।
এখানে বালিকে জ্বালিয়ে নামছে অনন্ত উত্তাপ,
শুকনো কুটোয় আগুন ধরায় চকমকি তার তলাতে
যেভাবে; তাইতে দু’গুণ করেছে বেদনার পরিমাপ।
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SOkol siktaraSir upore monthor dharapat
jhOre aguner, spharito phOlokborSi,
name je dharaY tuSartObok alpser nirbat//
uSnobOlOYe sikandar je chilo SakkhatdorSi,
Sikha jhOre tar buher upore, Sei hindusthane,
abhaNa akare, je porjonto na hOY bhumisporSi//
payer tOlaY maTi dole jete sOdOle jOtno mane
tai Se, karon choRiYe na giYe, oi aguner bhap
alada thakle, sahoj upaY dhOre tar nirbane//
ekhane balike jaliYe namche Ononto uttap,
sukno kuToY agun dhOraY cOkmoki tar tOlate
jebhabe; taite dugun koreche bedonar porimap//
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