Shamsur Rahman Translated by Kaiser Haq Mask Shower me with petals, heap bouquets around me, I won’t complain. Unable to move, I won’t ask you to stop nor, if butterflies or swarms of flies settle…
Day: June 18, 2017
Qayes Ahmed Translated from Bengali by Parveen K Elias Sons of the soil A story on Bangladesh’s Liberation War. The Bangla title of the story was “Nochiketagon”. With sixteen persons huddled together in a narrow bathroom, there…
Mohammad Rafiq is not mentioned as frequently as some of his peers in literary discussions or addas. But critics and poets alike regard him as one of our best poets who, in a career spanning more than five decades, has kept carving for himself newer paths. Sanatkumar Saha, a renowned critic, has said Rafiq continues to grow as a poet even in his 70s, and stunningly so, as he is rarely found to have repeated himself.
This is a tribute to the poet without whose contribution the modern foundation of our poetry would not be where it is today. Shaheed Quaderi left us forever on August 28. He is not as prolific a poet as his peers. But the 126 poems he has written have given us a picture of Dhaka that will live on for as long as the city lives. Here are two of his poems in Shawkat Hussain’s translation.
Abdus Selim All deaths are tragic but some deaths are more tragic than others. All deaths bring feeling of sadness and sense of loss but some deaths bring extreme feeling of sadness and loss. Such…