DevotionalBengali1905 (Swadeshini)
Ma Bole Ke Dakbe Tore (Shyama Sangeet)
মা বলে কে ডাকবে তোরে (শ্যামা সঙ্গীত)
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Ma Bole Ke Dakbe Tore is a three-stanza song to the goddess Kali written by the Bengali poet Girindramohini Dasi and printed under the title Shyama Sangeet in her book Swadeshini (1905). It is a devotee's complaint addressed straight to the goddess, and it is a fitting text for Kali Puja, which falls on 8 November 2026, the same night as Diwali.
- Written by
- Girindramohini Dasi (died 1924)
- Context
- Poem titled 'Shyama Sangeet' (a song to Kali) in Swadeshini (1905) by Girindramohini Dasi, three stanzas
- Year
- 1905 (Swadeshini)
- Language
- Bengali
- Added
- by Lyriccs Editorial Desk
Ma Bole Ke Dakbe Tore (Shyama Sangeet) lyrics with English translation
Complete text of the poem as printed in Swadeshini (1905). Spelling follows the Wikisource transcription.
মা বলে কে ডাকবে তোরে করালিনী তুই রে কালী। মা হলে সন্তানের বুকে ঢেলে দিতিস এমন কালী!
Ma bole ke dakbe tore Karalini tui re Kali. Ma hole santaner buke Dhele ditis emon kali!
Who will call you "Mother", you terrifying Kali? If you were a mother, would you pour such blackness over your child's heart?
লোল-জিহ্বা-ভয়ঙ্করী কি দিয়ে তোর পূজা করি;― ভয় পেয়ে ত্রিপুরারী দেছেন পদে অঙ্গ ঢালি!
Lol-jihba-bhayankari Ki diye tor puja kori; Bhoy peye Tripurari Deychhen pode ongo dhali!
Lolling-tongued, dreadful one, with what can I worship you? Struck with fear, Tripurari (Shiva) has laid his own body down beneath your feet!
সংহার-রূপিনী তুমি সংহার এ কর্ম-ভূমি;— রক্তবীজে বধেছিস্ ত জন্মবীজে পারিসনে খালি!
Sanhar-rupini tumi Sanhar e karmo-bhumi; Raktobije bodhechhis to Jonmobije parishne khali!
You are destruction itself, and you destroy this field of deeds, the world. You killed Raktabija, yes, but you cannot empty out the seed of birth!
Translation: Lyriccs (original translation). Transliteration: Lyriccs.
The story behind Ma Bole Ke Dakbe Tore (Shyama Sangeet)
The poem appears on page 14 of Swadeshini, a collection by Girindramohini Dasi (1858-1924) that Bengali Wikisource has digitised from the 1905 edition. Dasi was one of the better-known Bengali women poets of her generation. Her published collections include Abhas (1890) and Arghya (1902), and she also wrote plays; a biography on Ninad Kobita counts nine poetry collections over about five decades. She died on 16 August 1924, so her text is long out of copyright.
Shyama Sangeet (literally 'songs of the dark one') is the Bengali name for devotional songs addressed to Kali, also called Shyama. The genre belongs to Bengali Shakta devotion, in which the goddess is addressed as a mother and the singer is her child. It is closely tied to Kali Puja, the worship of Kali on the new-moon night of the Hindu month of Ashwayuja (Kartika in the purnimanta reckoning). In Kolkata and many other Bengali towns this night coincides with Diwali, and in 2026 both fall on 8 November.
The poem itself is short and the printed page gives no tune, raga or performer. Lyriccs found no official recording of this exact text, so no video is embedded: the page carries the original Bengali, a Latin-script transliteration and a new English translation, all free to publish.
What Ma Bole Ke Dakbe Tore (Shyama Sangeet) means
The first stanza is a reproach. The singer asks who will bother to call Kali 'Mother' when she looks so terrifying (karalini). The second half of the stanza turns on a pun in the word kali, which is both the goddess's name and the ordinary Bengali word for ink, soot or a dark stain. A real mother, the poet says, would not pour such kali over a child's heart. The line can be read as a complaint about the goddess, about grief, or both; the poet leaves it open.
The second stanza looks at the goddess's frightening form: the lolling tongue and the dread she inspires. The singer asks with what offering she could possibly be worshipped. Even Shiva, here called Tripurari ('foe of Tripura'), is shown lying down at her feet in fear, an image from the familiar iconography of Kali standing on Shiva's body.
The last stanza names Kali as the power of destruction who ends the world of action (karma-bhumi). She killed the demon Raktabija, whose every drop of blood produced another demon, yet she cannot empty 'the seed of birth': the cycle of rebirth and suffering goes on. This is the sharpest turn in the poem. The goddess who defeated Raktabija is told that the real enemy of her devotees, birth itself and the sorrow it carries, is still undefeated. Translators may reasonably render a few of these words differently, particularly kali and khali, and the English below is Lyriccs' own.
Quick facts
- The poem is printed under the title Shyama Sangeet on page 14 of Swadeshini (1905) by Girindramohini Dasi.
- Girindramohini Dasi lived from 1858 to 1924; her collections include Abhas (1890) and Arghya (1902).
- Shyama Sangeet is the Bengali genre of devotional songs to the goddess Kali (Shyama).
- Kali Puja is held on the new-moon night of Ashwayuja or Kartika, the same night as Diwali; in 2026 it falls on 8 November.
- The final stanza refers to Raktabija, the demon whose spilled blood produced more demons, killed by Kali in the Devi Mahatmya story.