Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/211

 PUNDITS AND MUNSIS 187

আর আর গুণের সমান বটে। আনন্দোন্মন্ত কাক এই BRA কথাতে ভুলিয়া তাহাকে আপন স্বরের পরিপাটা দেখাইবার জন্টে মুখ খুলিলেক তখন পোনীর নীচে পড়িল, তাহা তখনি খেঁকশিয়ালী উঠাইয়া লইয়া জয়যুক্ত প্রস্থান করিলেক, আর দীড়কাককে অবসরক্রমে আপন মিথ্যাগরিমার খেদ করিতে রাখিয়া গেল। ইহার ফল এই, যেখানে আরোপিত কথা প্রবেশ করে সেখানে জ্ঞানগোচর লোপ পায়। | 1

It is no little credit to the writer of this passage, as the reader will observe, that the prose for a translated piece shows great improvement indeed upon what had been published hitherto, and it is with great difficulty that we resist the temptation of giving more extracts of this simple homely style. This work resembles much Carey’s Itihās-mālā in its perspicuity and elegance, although the latter book was published almost a decade after this.

The simplicity and elegance of its prose.

It is by always aiming to be plain, accurate and natural that the language of this work succeeds in attaining such excellence of diction among contemporary records in spite of its very close adherence to its English original and occasional imitation, as in the passage quoted, of English and Persian construc- tions. It is to be regretted, however, that the writer of these pieces never tried his hand at original prose-writing which if he had touched, he might have adorned in a way better than many of his contemporaries. 1. The Oriental Fabulist (1803) ed. by Gilchrist, p. 35. In the transliteration I have corrected the spelling, otherwise no alteration is made ; for the transliteration seems to have been made according to sound rather than according to spelling. The transliterated version in Roman letters is given in Appendix III. at the end of this volume, where a note also will be found on this system of transliteration ; for which I am indebted to Professor Suniti Kamar Chatterji.