Transcript Bilingual poetry

Bilingual poetry
These resources can be used for
•Cross-curricular topic work involving
children’s different languages
•Language classes in the community
•MFL classes
See also resource sheet (link), full versions of poems (link) and scheme of
work (link)
Kajla Didi: well-known Bengali poem about a girl
whose sister has mysteriously disappeared
Transliterated and translated versions
Kajla Didi by Jatindra Mohon Bagchi
Baash baganer mather upor chad uteche oi
Mago amaar solok bola Kajla didi koi?
Pukur dhare, nebur tole thokai thokai jonak jole
Phooler gondhe ghum ase na ekla jege roi
Maago amar koler kache Kajla didi koi?
The moon has appeared on the top of the bamboo garden
Mother, where is my quiz teller sister Kajla?
Near the pond and underneath the lemon plant
Where lots of fire flies are flying
The flowers’ smell kept me awake and it’s only me who is awake
Mother, where is my very dear sister Kajla?
(Transliteration and translation by Shabita Shamsad)
First verse: see document for full version
What Has Happened to Lulu?: English poem by
Charles Causley, also about a missing sister
What Has Happened To Lulu?
What has happened to Lulu, mother?
What has happened to Lu?
There's nothing in her bed but an old rag-doll
And by its side a shoe.
Why is her window wide, mother,
The curtain flapping free,
And only a circle on the dusty shelf
Where her money-box used to be?
(first two verses: see document for full version)
Bilingual learning approaches
• Use all three versions of Kajla Didi to
investigate meaning
• Involve parents and grandparents: ask
questions about poem and ask if they know
poems in other languages
• Compare Kajla Didi and What Happened
to Lulu – similarities and differences
• Write own poems about loss, using Bengali,
English or other languages
Questions about the poem at Bengali school:
children use transliterated Bengali, Bengali
script and/or English for their answers
Questions written by children at
primary school, taken home to parents
in transliterated Bengali, leading to
discussion about Bangladeshi life and
culture arising from the poem.
Questions include:
What does firefly mean?
Do birds hide in trees?
Is the doll <in the ‘dolls’ wedding’
game> a boy?
Child’s poem about loss