Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/404

380 BENGALI LITERATURE or এই খেদ তারে চথে দেখে মরতে CHAT A | আমায় চাক বা না চাক্‌ সদা স্থখে থাক্‌ কেন দেখা দিয়ে একবার ফিরে গেল না। জীবনো থাকিতে প্রাণ নাথ যদি নাহি এলো নিবাসে। লুন্ধ আশা দিয়ে সে কেন রইল প্রবাসে ॥ To condemn these expressions of the franker and simpler moods of the passion itself is unjust and canting prudery ; and the whole controversy over the question of moral tendency would seem to one to be a signal instance of the wrong thing in the wrong place. It is more than useless or irrelevant either to read austere morals into these poets or damn them for their want of morals. To anyone who can appreciate the Joxhomie of Kabi-poetry, the songs remain and remain yet unsurpassed, inspite of its very direct plain-speaking (or coarseness if you will) according to modern standards, as the most frank expression of physical affection, of the exceedingly human, honest and natural passion of the man for the woman. The amatory fashion of the world passeth but instead of undervaluing it or ‘sneering at it when it is gone, let us appreciate the reality, force and naturalness of human passion wherever and in whatever shape it may be found. The a@gaman?7 songs of Ram Basu, even more than his biraha songs, have all along enjoyed a reputation never yet surpassed ; and this reputation they certainly deserve. The sakhi-sambad and biraha songs of Hie Ggamani other Kabiwalas may approach or challenge comparison with those of Ram Basu; but in a@gaman? Ram Basu is undoubtedly