‘Rebel poet’ Kazi Nazrul Islam’s short stories can now be read in a newly translated volume

On the bank of the river Arial Khan in the district of Faridpur, there stood a small hamlet called Mohanpur. Most of the villagers were Muslim farmers. On the edge of the village, at a distance from them, lived a few Kayastha families. They kept apart as if to save themselves from the impurity of the Muslim touch.

Just as the black tassel on the Turkish fez wishes to live amicably with the holy tuft of hair worn by Hindu brahmins but never receives any respect from them, the attempts of the Muslims in the village to make friends with the Kayasthas were always rebuffed, for the latter looked suspiciously at them as if they were scared of the approach of evil spirits.

Among the Muslims of the village, Chunnu Byapari was a man of influence. He was a headman, but that did not stop him from toiling hard on his land. He was helped by his three wives and seven sons. Only he knew what stood in his way of attaining sunnat by taking one more wife. The village folk of course would gossip among themselves that his third missus was a shrew with a dreadful temper, and that it was because of...

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