Bengali summary

Don Juan কবিতাটি শুরু হয়েছে দু’জন বিখ্যাত কবি Robert Southey এবং William Wordsworth কে উৎসর্গ করে, যাঁরা ছিলেন Byron এর সমসাময়িক। কবিতার কথক এই মহান কবিদের থেকে নিজেকে আলাদা করে বলেন, তার মিউস অপেক্ষাকৃত ক্ষুদ্র; ফলে তার পঙক্তি ও অপেক্ষাকৃত কম গুরুত্বপূর্ণ।

এই দীর্ঘ আখ্যানটি এর পর শুরু হয় ডন জুয়ান জন্মের কাহিনী বর্ণনার মাধ্যমে। সিলভিয় শহরের ডোনা আইনেজ ও ডন জোসের পুত্র ডন জুয়ান তার মায়ের বান্ধবীর সাথে এক ধরনের শারীরিক সম্পর্কে জড়িয়ে পড়ে। ডোনা জুলিয়ার স্বামী ডা. আলফেনসো এই সম্পর্ক উদ্ঘাটন করলে ডন জুয়ানকে ক্যাডিজে পাঠিয়ে দেওয়া হয়।

যেখানে যাত্রাকালে ডন জুয়ান জাহাজ ঝড়ের সম্মুখীন হয় এবং সেই একমাত্র বেঁচে ফেরে। The Pirate Lambro এর কন্যা Haidee এর সাথে দেখা হওয়ার আগ পর্যন্ত সে একাই ঘুরছিল। পরবর্তীতে The Pirate Lambro এর লোকেরা Haidee এর সাথে তাকে ধরে ফেলে এবং দাস হিসেবে বিক্রি করে দেয়।

সুলতানের হেরেমের সদস্য The Lovely Gulbayaz তার মুক্তির ব্যবস্থা করে। সে তাকে মেয়েদের পোশাকে সজ্জিত করে নিজের কক্ষে রেখে দেয়। ডন জুয়ান তার এক পরিচারিকার সাথে বিছানায় গেলে সে তাদের দুজনকেই হত্যার হুমকি দেয়। কিন্তু ডন জুয়ান সেখান থেকে পালতে সক্ষম হয়।

ডন জুয়ান পরবর্তীতে ইসমাইলের নেতৃত্বাধীন রাশিয়ান সেনাবাহিনীতে যোগদান করে। সেখানে সে একজন দক্ষ যোদ্ধা হিসেবে নিজেকে প্রমাণ করে এবং লায়লা নামের এক মুসলমান মেয়েকে উদ্ধার করে। বিজয়ী রাশিয়ার সেনাবাহিনীর সেন্ট পিটারবার্গ এ যায়, সেখানে ডন জুয়ান ও তার সঙ্গী মেয়েটিকে, রানি ক্যাথেরিন এর দরবারে নিয়ে যাওয়া হয়। রানী ডন জুয়ানকে খুব পছন্দ করে এবং তাকে সভাসদ হিসেবে যোগদানের আমন্ত্রণ জানায়।

পরবর্তীতে ডন জুয়ান অসুস্থ হয়ে পড়ে এবং তাকে ইংল্যান্ডে রাশিয়ার দূত হিসেবে পাঠানো হয়। সেখানে সে লায়লার জন্য একজন সেবিকার পেয়ে যায়। এরপর শুরু হয় ডন জুয়ানের ব্রিটিশ সমাজে বিভিন্ন ঘটনার পরিক্রমা।

Short Summary

The poem Don Juan begins with a dedication to two famous poets, Robert Southey and William Wordsworth, who were Byron’s contemporaries. The narrator of the poem distinguishes himself from these great poets by saying that his muse is relatively small; As a result, its order is relatively less important.

This long narrative then begins by recounting the story of Don Juan’s birth. Don Juan, the son of Dona Inez and Don Jose of Silvio, has an affair with his mother’s girlfriend. Dona Julia’s husband Dr. Alfonso when discovers the affair, don Juan is sent to Cadiz.

During the voyage, Don Juan’s ship encounters a storm and he is the only survivor. He wandered alone until he met Haidee, daughter of The Pirate Lambro. He was later captured by The Pirate Lambro’s men along with Haidee and sold as a slave.

The Lovely Gulbayaz, a member of the Sultan’s harem, arranges his release. She dresses him in girl’s clothes and keeps him in his room. When Don Juan goes to bed with one of his maids, he threatens to kill them both. But Don Juan managed to escape from there.

Don Juan later joined the Russian army led by Ismail. There he proves himself as a skilled warrior and rescues a Muslim girl named Laila. The victorious Russian army marched to St. Petersburg, where Don Juan and his companion were taken to the court of Queen Catherine. The queen likes Don Juan very much and invites him to join her as a courtier.

Later Don Juan fell ill and was sent to England as Russia’s ambassador. There he gets a nurse for Laila. Then began the cycle of events in the British society of Don Juan.

Long Summary

The author begins by saying that since his own age cannot supply a suitable hero for his poem, he will use an old friend, Don Juan. Don Juan was born in Seville, Spain. His parents are Don José and Donna Inez. Donna Inez is learned and has a good memory. Her favorite science is mathematics. She has a smattering of Greek, Latin, French, English, and Hebrew. Don José has no love for learning or the learned and has a roving eye. As his wife is rigidly virtuous and as he is incautious by nature, he is forever getting into scrapes. Consequently, there are quarrels between the two. Donna Inez, with the help of druggists and doctors, tries to prove that her husband is mad. She also keeps a diary in which she notes all his faults and even searches through his trunks of books and letters looking for evidence to use against him. Their friends and relatives try to no avail to bring about a reconciliation; their lawyers recommend a divorce. But before the situation can reach a critical point, Don Jose dies.

Donna Inez makes herself responsible for the supervision of Don Juan’s education. He is taught riding, fencing, gunnery, how to scale a fortress, languages, sciences, and arts. His education is to a certain degree impractical, for he is taught nothing about life and studies the classics from expurgated editions. In short, his mother sees to it that he receives an education calculated to repress all his natural instincts and keeps the facts of life from him.

Among Donna Inez’s friends is Donna Julia, a beautiful, intelligent young woman with Moorish blood in her veins. She is married to Don Alfonso, a jealous man more than twice her age. Theirs is a loveless marriage. It is rumored that Donna Inez and Don Alfonso had once been lovers and that she cultivated the friendship of Donna Julia to maintain the association with her husband. Donna Julia has always been fond of Juan, but when he becomes a young man sixteen, her feelings toward him change and become a source of embarrassment to both of them. Juan does not understand the change that is taking place in him, but the more sophisticated Julia realizes that she is falling in love with Juan. She resolves to fight her growing love and never to see Juan again but the next day finds a reason for visiting his mother. She then convinces herself that her love is only Platonic and persuades herself that it will remain that way. Juan meantime cannot understand why he is pensive and inclined to seek solitude.

One June evening Julia and Juan happen to be in a bower together. One of Julia’s hands happens to fall on one of Juan’s. When the sun sets and the moon rises, Juan’s arm finds its way around Julia’s waist. Julia strives with herself a little, “And whispering ‘I will ne’er consent’-consented” (St. 117).

As Julia lies in her bed one November night, there arises a tremendous clatter. Her maid Antonia warns her that Don Alfonso is coming up the stairs with half the city at his back. The two women have barely enough time to throw the bedclothes in a heap when Don Alfonso enters the room. Julia indignantly asks Alfonso if he suspects her of wrongdoing and invites him to search the room. Alfonso and his followers do so and find nothing. While the search is going on, Donna Julia protests her innocence with angry eloquence, giving numerous examples of her virtue and pouring abuse upon her luckless husband. When no lover is found, Don Alfonso tries to excuse his behavior but only succeeds in drawing sobs and hysterics from his wife. Alfonso, shamefaced, withdraws with his followers, and Julia and Antonia bolt the bedroom door.

No sooner has Alfonso gone than Juan emerges from beneath the pile of bedclothes where he has been hidden. Knowing that Alfonso would soon be back, Julia and Antonia advise Juan to go into a closet. Hardly has Juan entered his new hiding place when Alfonso returns. Alfonso makes various excuses for his conduct and begs Julia’s pardon, which she half gives and half withholds. The matter might have ended there had Alfonso not stumbled over a pair of men’s shoes. He promptly goes to get his sword. Julia immediately urges Juan to leave the room and make his exit by the garden gate, the key to which she gives him. Unfortunately, on his way out he meets Alfonso and knocks him down. In the scuffle, Juan loses his only garment and flees naked into the night.

Alfonso sues for divorce. Juan’s mother decides that her son should leave Seville and travel to various European countries for four years. Julia is put in a convent from which she sends Juan a letter confessing her love for him and expressing no regrets.

The first episode of Don Juan ends at this point, but before concluding Canto I Byron adds twenty-two stanzas in which he entertains himself by giving a mocking statement of his intentions in regard to Don Juan, taunts his contemporaries Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey, defends the morality of his story, confesses that at thirty his hair is gray and his heart has lost its freshness, comments on the evanescence of fame, and says goodbye to his readers.