__NOTOC__ "Birpurush" ( bn, বীরপুরুষ, , English:''The Hero'') is a

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

poem written by

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

. The poem depicts a child fantasising that he saves his mother from

dacoit Dacoity is a term used for "banditry" in the Indian subcontinent. The spelling is the anglicised version of the Hindi word ''daaku''; "dacoit" is a colloquial Indian English word with this meaning and it appears in the ''Glossary of Colloquial ...

s. In the evening, when the sun is set, the child and his mother reach a barren place. There is not a single soul there. Even the cattle have returned home. Plodding silence reigns there. The mother is a bit afraid and wonders where they have arrived. The child reassures her and tells her that there is a small river ahead. bn, মরা নদীর সোঁতা The mother sees a shimmering light and asks her son about it. Suddenly, they hear the cry "Ha re, re re, re re" bn, হাঁরে রে রে রে রে। as a band of dacoits attacks their caravan. The mother shivers inside the

palanquin The litter is a class of wheelless vehicles, a type of human-powered transport, for the transport of people. Smaller litters may take the form of open chairs or beds carried by two or more carriers, some being enclosed for protection from the el ...

; the palanquin-bearers hide in the bush. The son reassures his mother and confronts the dacoits courageously. A fight follows, in which the son emerges victorious. The son returns to his mother, who kisses his forehead and thanks him. The imagination now turns from this event as the poet wonders why some exciting thing like this does not actually happen in the

mundane In subcultural and fictional uses, a mundane is a person who does not belong to a particular group, according to the members of that group; the implication is that such persons, lacking imagination, are concerned solely with the mundane: the w ...

course of everyday life. The poet contemplates that it would be like an adventure story that would fascinate everybody.

Notes

References

External links

Birpurush full poetry in Bengali and English

Famous Poets and Poems
Indian poems Bengali-language poems Poems by Rabindranath Tagore {{poem-stub