If it doesn't grow at all, not even leaves, its most likely dead.

all I get are a couple of leaves - shoudl I give up on it?

I'd give it a chance till next year - they like very fertile soil, so try enriching the soil with humus rich materials like well rotted horse manure, organic soil conditioning compost, garden compost, anything like that, and then plant in the soil in a sunny position - always assuming you have a hardy variety, that is, a lot of them aren't hardy and need greenhouse in the winter.

Great Bamboo - its gone one last chance then.