A carnival of rhymes
Nazma Yeasmeen Haque celebrates a work with a difference
It is fabulously enchanting in terms of its enormity of content that encompasses cultures worldwide, some as remote as the Eskimo, sub-groups among the Red Indians, Zulus and many more besides the main dominant cultures with which we are more familiar. It is immaculate. The presentation of contents theme-wise is awesome and gives readers a methodically neat classification within a given paradigm, drawing our attention to the purposes of individual rhymes. Although many of the rhymes are known to many of us, they yet remain mostly a mere act of recitation on our part through long habit. It is scintillating and certainly is a great scientific study. Whoever would have thought there was so much life in a nursery rhyme, enough to make it the subject of such an engrossing, systematic study? Yes, talking about Dr Afia Dil's magnum opus, Bengali Nursery Rhymes: An International Perspective, any receptive mind would undoubtedly come up with such reactions. In this magnificent book, Dr Dil has opened up a treasure trove of a very important segment of literature which is 'among the most ancient heritage of humankind', that is, nursery rhymes both in Bengali and from around the globe, making it perfectly cross-cultural across the length and breadth of an international arena. And there lies the beauty and substantiality of this massive work that the author has produced through a long, arduous process. Readers are lucky to have been gifted with a wealth of colourful, priceless rhymes. Although it is not the first of its kind in the actual sense of the term, nevertheless, by all accounts, this book is an exhaustive work that the author undertook for her research on Bengali nursery rhymes from an international perspective. For its completion she undertook a rigorous study of about two thousand rhymes, some of which are old and traditional, some others from later centuries, some from the East Pakistan period and yet others from the time Bangladesh was born. In other words, her repertoire of data, that is, collection of nursery rhymes, is colossal and correspondingly her analyses of them from different perspectives is intensive and mind-blowing. The 'extreme tenacity' of this tradition of nursery rhymes has been emphasised by the author as an integral part of all cultures that shows commonality and universalism in human life. An anthropological study of human culture is made most conspicuous at this point. A few of the unique features of nursery rhymes that Dr Afia Dil has brought to the fore are the similarities between them across cultures. For example, the famous English rhyme, "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall" is there in French rhyme as (translated): Ball, ball, on the wall
Ball, ball on the ground,
No man in England can be found
Who can mend this fallen ball. Next we find the version from Scandinavia, then from Switzerland, Denmark and in Germany as "Humpelken-Pumpelkane." The author further adds that this rhyme associated with 'broken eggs' is found under different titles in many other countries. A most fascinating section in this book is the inclusion of nursery rhymes from such famous English poets as Chaucer, John Bunyan and Lewis Carroll. As a lecturer in mathematics at Oxford University, Carroll, although he had many publications on mathematics, earned worlfwide fame for his Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass 'in which a number of his dream-like nonsense verses appeared which are unequalled masterpieces of literature for children of all ago.' Among some other famous poets who wrote mesmerising rhymes are Coleridge, who exalted the writing of rhymes as carrying on 'the feelings of childhood into the power of manhood'; Walter de la Mare, William Blake, Wordsworth, Sir Walter Scott, R.L. Stevenson, T.S. Eliot, Christina Rossetti and the French writer Victor Hugo. Thus the writer provides readers with a wealth of information, especially by informing us of the poets, heretofore unknown to many of us, behind many of the rhymes. For instance, the name of the poet of the nursery rhyme, Mary Had a Little Lamb, also sung as a song, is Sarah Josephina Hale (1788-1879). Another well-known one, "There was a naughty boy/And a naughty boy was he...." gave me sweet surprise when I learnt that it is by John Keats. And then comes the beautiful verse, "There was a little girl/who had a little curl....." from H.W. Longfellow. In the same vein, the author, while enlisting rhymes written by great poets like Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam and others, asserts, "... mothers, fathers and other members of the family themselves become like little children in communicating with their children." She also quotes Jesus Christ in this regard: "If you do not become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." She quotes profusely from poems written by the illustrious poets of yesteryears whose names have almost been pushed into the domain of oblivion --- Gholam Mustafa, Qader Nawaz, Rowshan Izdany, Ahsan Habib and a few others --- those who wrote for children with much affection and concern in lucid language. As one reads this book, one pauses every now and then and wonders about the world of nursery rhymes that can be studied in a myriad of ways. One such example is the long list of content-wise classification of rhymes into Affection Rhymes, Body Parts Rhymes, Educational Rhymes, Historical Rhymes, Nature Rhymes, Panorama of Life Rhymes, Poetic Nursery Rhymes, to name only a few. What is remarkable about this section is that for one nursery rhyme having origin in other counties, there is a corresponding one in Bengali by studying which one can very safely reflect on a broader spectrum of culture shared by humankind. One full chapter is most judiciously devoted to Bengali nursery rhymes in Bangladesh. In it the author has incorporated a few rhymes on historical events such as Ekushey and our Independence Day composed by little girls as young as eight years old. Here Dr Dil draws readers' attention to the perceptive minds of the people of this land in general and its children in particular when the matter of our identity is at stake. They give vent to their feelings through rhymes and poems that act as powerful weapons in our culture. The author, being very much down-to-earth, does not miss the chance of including one very practically and tersely written satirical rhyme by Wasim Haque, a young writer, on the 'tragic situation' of education with reference to teaching which at the same time is most hilarious. A mild note of dissent maybe voiced in relation to Dr Susan Ervin-Tripp's (professor emeritus, University of California, Berkeley) foreword in this book. She notes, "This is a treasure trove for those who love poetry for the young." As a matter of fact, any lover of poetry in general will find such rhymes and poems equally appealing. Appreciation of poetry may naturally extend down to that meant for the little ones or else the great poets, both at house and abroad, would not have felt a fascination for writing them. The heart is the constant keeper of a child in every adult, which is a matter of being conscious only. Dr Dil truly loves children and so in her dedication she writes, "Dedicated to my...." and then ads the names. The possessive pronoun tells a lot. In this age of high-speed advancement of technology, children are getting all the answers before their curiosity is awakened, thus unknowingly losing much of the beautiful creativity of their imagination. Dr Dil in this extraordinarily brilliant work has dredged up a wealth of literature and put them under one cover, which is an asset for all of us. There is a carnival of rhymes in this book. We feel tempted to join in.
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