Poetry

CC photo

By

Rehana Parvin

My Mother’s Tongue

When I cried in her lap for the first time

She soothed me with her sweet words

Uttered from her tongue

My mother’s language,

I am habituated with.

When I grew up and joined school

I learned writing with proper shape,

My Alphabet, I am proud of,

A little hard, yet impetus

Uttered by my mother’s tongue,

I am fluent with reading and writing.

Then I joined University,

Pursuing my graduation

The leaders of the other side of the joined nation,

Ordered to abolish all of a sudden

My mother’s sweetest utterance from the official tongue.

I became infuriated

Along with mates,

We marched forward the street

To stop this oppression.

Now I am away from mother and her land

Watching with a satisfactory heart from afar

How the whole world wreath us,

And respect our language

21st February 1952, we sacrificed our life

As those bullets pierced our chest but not heart

Our hearts are still unscathed.

As they hold mother’s love and the words,

She uttered for the first time

When I cried on her lap.

Background:

The language movement in 1952 was more than a fight to sustain one’s own identity when official measures had been taken to crush the mother tongue. After the then govt. had declared Urdu as the official state language, protests erupted all over the eastern part (later named Bangladesh) of the country. In February 1952 students protests led to the killing of many ordinary citizens and students by the police. In Bangladesh 21st February is observed as ‘Shaheed Dibosh’ (Martyr’s Day). For Bengali speaking people, the language is a part of the big historical sacrifice. The United Nations declared the day as “International Mother Language Day“. Today Bangla is the 6th most spoken language in the world.

Rehana Parvin

Rehana Parvin Laboni lives in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She is a housewife. She loves to read poems, historical books, short stories and articles. Her favorite hobby is reading and spending lovely and priceless times with her family.