(TRANSLATOR'S NOTE: It is difficult to translate the National Anthem of Bengal into verse in another language owing to its unique union of sweetness, simple directness and high poetic force. All attempts in this direction have been failures. In order, therefore, to bring the reader unacquainted with Bengali nearer to the exact force of the original. I give the translation in prose line by line.)*

I bow to thee Mother,

richly-watered, richly-fruited,

cool with the winds of the south,

dark with the crops of the harvests,

the Mother!

Her nights rejoicing in the glory of the moonlight,

her lands clothed beautifully with her trees in

flowering bloom,

sweet of laughter, sweet of speech,

the Mother, giver of boons, giver of bliss!

Terrible with the clamorous shout of seventy million

throats,

and the sharpness of swords raised in twice seventy

million hands,

Who sayeth to these, Mother, that thou art weak?

Holder of multitudinous strength,

I bow to her who saves,

to her who drives from her the armies of her foemen,

the Mother!

thou art heart, thou art soul,

for thou art the life in our body.

In the arm thou art might, O Mother,

in the heart, O Mother, thou art love and faith,

it is thy image we raise in every temple.

For thou art Durga holding her ten weapons of war,

Kamala at play in the lotuses

and speech, the goddess, giver of all lore,

to thee I bow!

I bow to thee, goddess of wealth

pure and peerless, richly-watered, richly-fruited,

the Mother!

I bow to thee, Mother,

dark-hued, candid,

sweetly smiling, jewelled and adorned,

the holder of wealth, the lady of plenty,

the Mother!

(Written in 1907)

It was thirty-two years ago that Bankim wrote his great song and few listened; but in a sudden moment of awakening from long delusions the people of Bengal looked round for the truth and in a fated moment some body sang Bande Mataram. The Mantra had been given and in a single day a whole people had been to the religion of patroitism. The mother had revealed herself. - Sri Aurobindo

* Sri Aurobindo had also rendered this Anthem into a prose form while translating Bankim Chandra's novel Anandamath (first 13 chapters). It is published in SABCL Vol. 8, PP. 338-39.