Volume-II, Issue-II, November 2025
Novel Insights A Peer-Reviewed Quarterly Multidisciplinary Research Journal |
Volume-II, Issue-II, November 2025 |
Influence of Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat on Kazi Nazrul Islam’s Composition: an Observation Md. Aftab Uddin, Research Scholar, Department of Hindustani Classical Music, Sangit-Bhavana. Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, West Bengal, India Dr. Chaya Rani Mandal, Associate Professor, Dept. of Hindustani Classical Music, Sangit-Bhavana, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, West Bengal, India Email: aftabmusicru@gmail.com |
Received: 13.11.2025 | Accepted: 27.11.2025 | Published Online: 30.11.2025 |
Page No: 172-180 | DOI: 10.69655/novelinsights.vol.2.issue.02W.053 | |
Abstract | ||
For as long as anyone can remember, the Bedouins of the Arabian desert have carried poetry in their blood. It wasn’t something they learned it was something they lived. Their words rose out of sand, wind, and firelight, shaping a tradition so powerful that it eventually carved out its own place in the story of world literature. And when this Bedouin spirit flowed eastward, it found a deeper, more reflective voice in the works of Persian poets none more captivating than Omar Khayyam. Khayyam’s thoughts and questions his way of looking at life, time, and the fleeting nature of existence echoed far beyond Persia. They found new life in the Indian subcontinent, especially in the work of Kazi Nazrul Islam. Nazrul was the first to bring Khayyam’s Rubaiyat from its original Persian into the rhythm and warmth of the Bengali language. But he didn’t just translate it; he let it seep into his own art. Lines from Khayyam’s verses found their way into Nazrul’s Islamic songs, into his Bengali ghazals, into the emotional landscape of his music. This short exploration looks at how the influence of Khayyam’s Rubaiyat helped shape Nazrul’s songs how it gave them a deeper pulse, a sharper edge, and a kind of timelessness that still speaks to us today. Keywords: Omar Khayyam, Sufism, Rubaiyat, Ghazal, Islamic song, Persian literature | ||