Poet Shamsur Rahman - Page 4

A poem about my own poetry

Shamsur Rahman
tr. from the Bengali by Shankar Sen

Shaheed Dibas: International Mother Language Day

HRCBM Press Release 21 February 2003

Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minorities (HRCBM) commemorates the 51^st Anniversary of Shaheed Dibas (Martyr Day), which is also popularly known as the Ekushe in Bangladesh. This Bengali Language Martyr Day is universally known as the "International Mother Language Day" since 1999. On this day, 51 years ago in 1952, the students of Dhaka protested the denial of Bengali, the language of the majority in the then Pakistan, as the national language and the imposition of Urdu as the sole official language of the country. The protests that sparked off on that day ultimately led to the War of Liberation that resulted in the birth of Bangladesh, a secular and democratic people's republic, in 1971. HRCBM pays homage to the martyrs of the 21^st February 1952 and all the brave souls who made the ultimate sacrifice for the liberation of Bangladesh and for safeguarding the conscience of Ekushe.

Ekushe - The Fountain of Bengali Conscience

Let us pause for a moment from our daily routine and reflect upon the spirit of Ekushe that guided us through numerous struggles and pay homage to the valiant martyrs of language movement who braved the streets of Dhaka and made the ultimate sacrifice on this day of the 21^st February 1952. Let us commemorate innumerable martyrs who carried the torch, sacrificed their lives for a free, peaceful, and prosperous Bangladesh, "Sonar Bangla", where all her citizen will be treated equally with dignity, where the pillars of the constitution, Bengali Nationalism, Secularism and Democracy, will be upheld. If we, those of us who belong to the Ekushe generation and those who have personally participated in the movement for recognition of Bengali as our national language and the War of Liberation, and those who believe in freedom, human rights and justice for all, close our eyes we can vividly see the procession of barefooted thousands from all walks of life wearing black badges and singing the immortal Ekushe theme song "Amar bhaiyer rakte rangano Ekushe February, Ami ki bhuleete paree." "How can I forget thee, Ekushe February, colored with the blood of my brother," streaming to the Central Shaheed Minar (Central Martyr's Monument) through the Ajimpur Grave yard to pay tributes to the memory of the martyrs. What started fifty-one years ago this day as the Language Movement of the Bengalis is now celebrated by all member countries of UNESCO as International Mother Language Day. Mother tongues (languages) are not only an essential part of humanity's cultural heritage, but the irreducible expression of human creativity and of its great diversity. We all should be proud of our heritage.

As the nation celebrates the 51^st anniversary of the Ekushe, the fountain of our Bengali conscience, we at home and abroad, need to reflect upon the spirit of Ekushe, which was clearly the spark of what we are today and what we strive to be. Today, as we look back we have many accomplishments as a nation and many failures and challenges ahead of us. We live in a global, connected world and no matter wherever we are, we have a role to play and we need to vow at this crucial moment of our national history to do our part to the fulfill the dreams of the martyrs, restore secularism-a corner stone of the conscience of the Ekushe, safeguard human rights and bestow justice and dignity to all citizens of our motherland.

Although 31 years have passed since our independence we have a long way to go for our national and social emancipation. Bangladesh, a nation free from social injustice and discrimination of all kinds, is yet to be achieved. Secularism, one of the four pillars of the constitution of Bangladesh, has been abandoned. The defeated forces of 1971 are better organized than ever and up in arms. They are spreading communal hatred, perpetrating heinous crimes against religious minorities, threatening and attacking the progressive forces and voice of the conscience, and destroying the spirit of Ekushe. Even on the eve of the celebration of Ekushe members of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (Nationalist Student Party), student activists of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party, dare to stop sale and display of a book on the Liberation War, titled "Bangladesh Genocide and World Press" at the Book Fair held during the month of February (The Daily Star, 09 February 2003). The ghost of communalism is rampant and still exerting its malignant influence on the people of Bangladesh, inflicting inhuman atrocities on the innocent people (particularly the minorities), threatening the secular forces, the thinkers, intellectuals, poets, artists, writers, journalists, historians and those who uphold freedom and the conscience of Ekushe. The pogrom of minorities that was unleashed immediately after the October 2001 general election is still raging all over the country.

Let the spirit of Ekushe, our national conscience, that led us through the momentous events of 1952, '62, '66, '69, '70, '71 and beyond, unite us in our struggle for justice and defeat all right wing communal forces once and for all. Let us resolve in the words of our national poet Shamsur Rahman that we will stand upright (Rhriju danrhiye thankte chai) and uphold the principles of Bengali conscience. Let us resolve to uphold the spirit of Ekushe and continue our fight for a secular Bangladesh where freedom, equality and justice will ring forever unhindered!

Dhiman Deb Chowdhury

President, HRCBM

Interesting, I am waiting to learn some more things...keep up the good posts!

Originally posted by: Qwest

It is a Sad day for me and big loss for that Nation. Kanta I really knew him very closely, I can re-call my days when we both walk side by side sit down for a cup of tea listen to music together and debate politics and share a lot other issue, He was in my house in USA. I have lot of memories with the Poet. Grew up with his poetry. I collect all the smiles from my yesterday and neatly pack them into words and hide them in my heart, I call them "MEMORIES".

Just saw your reply now, Qwest da.

Wow, Qwest da, you were that close with him? I understand now how you must be feeling after this loss! It's really hard to see when people who we love so much leave us.

Farewell, the civic poet

Shamsur Rahman (77) was one of the most acclaimed poet of Bangladesh. With more than 60 books to his credit, he was the most popular contemporary poet and nicknamed the civil poet. To know Shamsur Rahman's poetry is to know his people and his country. He started at age 18 and was a career journalist in some of the leading Bangla newspapers.

He was vocal against the religious fundamentalists of the country since long which had cost him a failed assassination attempt by the bigots in 1999. But he had to go this time because of kidney and liver failures. Yesterday he died and no state funeral was given as he was not well in terms with the government for their partnership with the religious parties. But Bangladesh will remember him always. Here is one of his poems:

Before the Journey

I'll soon be gone, quite alone
And quietly, taking none of you along
On this aimless journey. Useless
To insist, I must leave you all behind.

No, I'll take nothing at all.
On this solitary journey, you're stuffing
My bags for nothing; don't squeeze my favorites books
Into that beer-bellied suitcase.
I won't ever turn their pages.
And let the passport sleep on in the locked drawer.

Only let me have a look at the harvest
From my ceaseless toil, the quietly ripening fruits
Of my talent. But what on earth
Are these wretched things you bring?
Did I lie drunk with smugness in my little den
At having produced this inert, unsightly crop?
My soul screams in mute desolation
At the thought of carrying this sight with me,
I beg you, don't add to the burden of this journey.

Translated by Kaiser Haq

OBITUARY: SHAMSUR RAHMAN
The poet is dead, long live the poet

by Mubin S Khan


portrait by Nasir Ali Mamun
Shamsur Rahman was born on October 23, 1929, at 10:00am on a Wednesday at 46 Mahuttuli, Dhaka — his maternal grandparents' house. His father was the late Mukhlesur Rahman Chowdhury and mother the late Amena Begum. His mother was his father's second wife after his first wife passed away. He was the fourth amongst his parents' thirteen children. Nicknamed Bachchu, he never used his family name — Chowdhury — in his professional life.
Originally from village Pahartali, thana Raipura, Narsingdi, Rahman spent his childhood in Mahuttuli. This semi-urban place left a deep impression and later had much influence on Rahman's poetry. In those days, despite being a part of Dhaka, Mahuttuli had very little concrete structures and motor vehicles and was instead a neighbourhood of mud houses, horse-drawn carriages, tea stalls and kerosene lamps. Rahman in his poetry later on, especially 'Smritir Shohor' and 'Rouddro Korotite', reminisces about the sheulitala behind Armanitola school, about Janmashthami celebrations, Muharram processions, the glass sculptures of gods and goddesses in the shops in Babubazar, pictures of kananbala, Tagore, and the famous brothels of Babubazar from his childhood.
Rahman started school at the Pogose School at class II in 1936 and finished his matriculation examinations from the same school in 1945, securing second division. In 1947 he finished his intermediate from Dhaka College once again securing second division. The same year, he moved out of Mahuttuli and started living in 30, Syed Aulad Hossain Lane, Dhaka 1-A.
Incidentally, his first work of literature was not poetry but prose. It was a piece written on the untimely death of his younger sister, who died of small pox, and influenced by 'Chinnamukul' by Shotendranath Dutta. It was apparently read out to his family members who were left in tears. His first poem 'Tarpar De Chhut' was written in 1949, published in weekly Sonar Bangla, edited and published by Nalinikishore Guha.
Though he enrolled in the department of English at the University of Dhaka in 1947, he refrained from sitting for any examinations for many years, preferring a bohemian life. He finally graduated from the university in 1953 with a BA pass course degree. He enrolled for Masters at the same department later on, and though he finished second class second in the first part, he failed to pass the second part.
Shamsur Rahman married Zohura Begum, a distant relative and old acquaintance, in 1955. Together they had five children, two sons and three daughters. Sumaira Rahman was born in 1956, Faizur Rahman was born in 1958, Fouzia Rahman was born in 1959, Wahidur Rahman Matin was born in 1960 and Seba Rahman was born in 1961.
Matin, his younger son, was mentally disabled and died after drowning in their village pond in 1979. Rahman, who was deeply shocked by this loss, would later write many poems including 'Pitaputra', 'Phire ay uttaradhikari', 'Thor kach theke dure' and 'noishoprohore parashpar' in memory of his deceased son.
By profession Rahman was a journalist for more than three decades. From 1957 to 1958 he worked as a sub-editor at the Morning News. From 1958 to 1960 he was programme producer with the Dhaka centre of Pakistan Radio. From 1960 to 1964 he once again worked with the Morning News, this time as senior sub-editor. In November 1964, he joined the then Dainik Pakistan (later Dainik Bangla) as an assistant editor and remained in that position till 1977, till he was named editor of the now-defunct Dainik Bangla as well as the weekly Bichitra. He left the newspaper in 1987.
He also edited a little magazine called Kabikantha and headed the editorial board of the publication in 1956. He edited the short-lived Adhuna in 1987. He joined Shaptahik Muldhara as chief editor in 1989 and worked till 1991. He was made chairman of the Bangla Academy in 1996 and remained there till 1999.
Shamsur Rahman, alongside Al Mahmud and Shaheed Quadri, was one of the most influential poets in this part of Bengal in the latter half of the last century. The poet and his work were deeply rooted in his own tradition. He successfully reflected the colloquial language of Dhaka in his poetry. Rahman also used Old Dhaka's dialect, which is a mix-up of Urdu, Persian and Bangla words. Urban themes, symbols, signs and resemblance also widely figure in his poems. As he was born and brought up in Old Dhaka, his use of those foreign words, including Urdu and Persian, added a new flavour to Bangla poetry.
The poet was also deeply intertwined with the political development of the then East Pakistan leading ultimately to the emergence of Bangladesh. Although he was never active in politics, he composed a number of political poems, which were particularly devoted to the country's struggle for freedom and independence.
One of his most popular poems is 'Asader Shirt' where the poet gives an emotional description of the death of a young demonstrator, who was brutally killed in police firing at a protest rally against the despotic army rule. Rahman was always vocal against the tyrannical rule and suppression of the people by the West Pakistani rulers.
He was a familiar figure for his picket lines and efforts in anti-fundamentalism movements. He became a signatory to a statement that advocated the airing of Tagore songs on radio which was banned by then information minister Khwaja Sahabuddin on June 22, 1967.
After the independence of Bangladesh, Rahman emerged as the most powerful poet of the country, reflecting, in his work, the spirit of independence and the Liberation War. Rahman composed a number of poems which got immense popularity among the masses and were highly acclaimed by the critics — 'Swadhinata Tumi' being the most well-known.
Rahman was also active during the struggle against the autocratic rule of HM Ershad. He took the risk of losing the editorship of the government-owned Dainik Banlga and joined protest rallies against the Ershad regime. He wrote the famous poem 'Odbhut Uter Pithhe Cholechhe Swadesh' (the country riding a peculiar camel) about the misrule during the Ershad regime.
Shamsur Rahman wrote for about 55 years, has more than 60 publications, mainly volumes of poems, and composed about 2,000 poems. His first collection of poems, Pratham Gan, Dvitiya Mrityur Age was published in 1960.
Among the honours he won was the Adamjee Award in 1963, Bangla Academy Award for Literature in 1969, Jibanananda Das Award in 1973, Ekushey Padak in 1977, Abul Mansur Ahmed Memorial Award in 1981, Nasiruddin Gold Medal and Padavali Award in 1981, Maulana Bhasani Award in 1982, Swadhinata Padak in 1991, and Ananda Award of India in 1994. Three Indian universities also conferred DLit degrees on him.
Shamsur Rahman, a doyen of the Bangla poetry of the latter half of the twentieth century, died at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University in Dhaka on August 17. He was 77.

Shamsur Rahman turns seventy-five

Shahriar Salam
?Bachchu tumi, Bachchu tui, Chole jao, chole jaa shekhane
Chechollish Mahuttulir Khola Chade
Ekhon tor Shange, Tor Shange Bakkalap Korar Moton
Ektuo Shomoy nei??
?O thy Bachchu?. Fly, fly away there,
upon the wide roof of 46, Mahuttuli. busy, I?m the busiest
Now I can?t spare a single moment to meet you ..dear bachchu
(?Duhshomoer Mukhomukhi? by Shamsur Rahman)

Here Bachchu is none other than our white haired, but evergreen, Shamsur Rahman. This is a poet who doesn?t need any introduction. We know him through his extra tactile sensitivity and the emotional nature of his poems. But are we aware of the Bachchu in him (Bachchu is the nickname of Shamsur Rahman)? This renowned poet has just turned seventy five, and almost walked an entire lifetime. His poems are his most significant weapons with which we can explore him, our country, our life, our senses and what not?
The nineteenth century is marked as the Renaissance of Bangla poetry. The poets of the era attempted to venture into a new way in literature. The movement thus began to stand on its own feet. On the basis of such a principle, we can safely place Shamsur Rahman in the line of tradition inaugurated by Jibananda Das. He has proved himself not only the most popular, but also the principal poet of our time. His first poem was published in 1949. The blossoming period of his poetry was in contradiction to the politics and culture of the times.
In the early1969, he suddenly started moving off from his earlier track, and went for a different strategy in his writing. The spark of patriotism touched his poems at that time. Besides, human emotions and feelings like love, solitude, revolution, the concentration of personal life and many other social sensations began to be reflected in his poems in ever-increasing circles.
Shamsur Rahman has never tried to deduce poetic themes from his surroundings. His themes have always followed his inner approaches, rather than from an examination of reality. But he was greatly influenced by his home, Dhaka; he sacrificed himself as a great credit to the city. This city was the one of the main elements in making him a poet. His literature in the subsequent stages was aimed at raising the spirit of agitation among the people against autocracy and repression.
Rahman?s poems will always hold a symbolic meaning, for they embrace the turmoil and disorder that prevail in our society. The red shirt of Asad flutters as a revolutionary flag in his poem. In 1971, Dhaka was not only a besieged city; to Shamsur Rahman it was also the capital of a deadly and bold people.
He voiced protests against the genocide committed by the Pakistani military junta. The poems which he wrote then projected our hunger for independence and stimulated our love for the motherland.
?Freedom,
You?re the remarkable poems of Tagore
Freedom,
You?re Kazi Nazrul, the vigorous man with endless power ...?
Or
?To attain you, Shadhinata,
How many days we have to shower in the ocean of blood?
How long we have to tolerate heinous agitation??
These poems are outstanding contributions to our literature. He continues his journey of writing poems till today. This literary genius planted a tiny little seed in the field of Bangla literature many years ago, which has now grown into a huge tree that bears more and more leaves everyday. We all know that if and when he passes from the scene, a splendid era of our poetry will be lost to us. As votaries of poetry, indeed of culture, we all wish him a very happy birthday, and implore him to live a couple of centuries more to continue to portray our many loves and our diverse longings.
Long live Shamsur Rahman!

Mahbub Husain Khan

I began my last week's column thus: "August is the 'cruellest month' for us as a nation." When I wrote this line our legendary poet, Shamsur Rahman was hovering between life and death. Within hours after I handed in my column at the Holiday office, he had joined the ranks of the immortals after death. Since then, another legend of the Indian subcontinent, Ustad Bismillah Khan died - he who played his Shehnai on the occasion of the first Independence day of the Indian subcontinent. And as of now, our National Professor Dr Nurul Islam is still in a critical condition at CMH.
While there have been no fireworks in the political arena of the metropolis this week, being mostly a week of mourning, the possibility of an one-on-one dialogue between Jalil and Mannan Bhuyia seems brighter. At the same time the younger leaders of the BNP are proposing amendment to the Constitution, before 27th October - when the ruling party is to hand over power to the non-party caretaker government. The amendment proposed by some young stalwarts of BNP - is Tareque Rahman amongst them? - is supposedly for an institutional mechanism for any void in constitutional continuity in the event of a political impasse if the Awami League and the 14-party combine may not take part in the elections.
Meanwhile, as I write this column, Ershad has made the announcement that he would field candidates for 300 seats at the elections, if Awami League does not contest the elections. What does this mean? Will Jatiya Party contest in coalition with BNP if Awami League and 14-party contest in the elections, and will it be in opposition to BNP if Awami League does not contest, or is this part of the bargaining strategy of Ershad? Only the next weeks will reveal Ershad's ultimate strategy.
An important conference of the Health Ministers of South East Asian Region (SEAR) was held this week, organised by WHO, at a local hotel in the city, on healthcare for all in South and South East Asia. Our Prime Minister inaugurated the meeting, stressing the need for removing healthcare inequities in the region, and called for the development of new health and medicine technologies, manufacture of drugs at affordable prices and the necessity for a well-trained and socially dedicated public-health workforce.
The countries in the region must innovate financing methods to make healthcare affordable to all households. There should be greater cooperation among the countries in the region for resolution of the problems and obstacles to affordable healthcare and sharing of knowledge and experience acquired by development partners and affluent nations. This is a very critical juncture of the healthcare scenario in the region. While the rich in South East Asia can pay for the best of the healthcare facilities in the region as well as in the advanced countries, the poor are always neglected. Poverty causes neglect of healthcare, and neglect of healthcare increases poverty as the chronically sick or those afflicted by dread diseases, among the poor, cannot work actively for a decent living. This is a vicious cycle and the people of South East Asia have to get out of this situation. WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA, have to launch a campaign to eradicate epidemics and provide assistance for development of drugs to fight HIV/AIDS, dengue and other infectious vector-borne diseases, and also help organise public awareness campaigns for health professionals and the public in general. The richer nations have to transfer their technologies to the poor nations, particularly in South East Asia, and also assist in the development of the potential of doctors and health professionals in the region. Healthcare is a basic human right, along with food and shelter. We cannot, in Bangladesh, and elsewhere in the region, further neglect the problems arising in this vital sector.

Poet's journey to eternity
Shakespeare has been quoted for the last four centuries all over the world. I now quote Shakespeare on the death of a literary personality who, we feel, would also be quoted for centuries hence, wherever Bengali is spoken and read.
"He died as one that had been studied in his death / To throw away the dearest thing he owed /As 'there a careless trifle."
I have been reading Shamsur Rahman's poetry and stories since the nineteen-fifties. But it was over twelve years later that I actually met him in the company of common friends Rabiul Husain, Rafiq Azad, Belal Choudhury, and Mahmudul Haque. Since that day we have met at poetry readings and social evenings, and I enjoyed every minute of those sessions. Unfortunately, I have not been meeting him since the late nineteen-nineties, and the loss is mine.
Shamsur Rahman has come to the end of a brave and savage life. Bangladesh isn't producing any more writers who have a galvanising place in the cultural life of a nation. He came of age at a time when ideas mattered and intellectuals were the central ground in the imaginative life of the nation. He had a wholly distinctive poetic voice. All poets must sound like themselves, not like some one else. But Shamsur Rahrnan's voice is not only distinctive, it is also elusive. His cadences stay with you for life altering the way you feel. They're the sound of a mind communing with itself, resigned, scrupulously honest. The subject he returns to most often is his sense of something indecipherable. It is this that makes him a symbolist writing intense but often puzzling poems with an absence at their heart.
On Pahela Baishakh 1413 (14th April, 2006, I read his poem, Shantir Shrotey Bheshey Gelo (Swept Away in the Currents of Peace): If just lift my eye / I see my father's two eyes/ His gaze indicating annoyance at his son / At other times his fatherly gaze makes me his favourite scion / Whose profession counts among the peoples of the world. ...."
He had written in his poem 'Bibechana' (Consideration), for just this occasion: 'When I die, what day of the week will it be, difficult to say./ Friday? Wednesday / Saturday?' Whatever day it is, / The city must not be awash with rain , the slimy mud! Shall not gather at the end of the lane. If the streets flood on that day,/ The pious carriers of my coffin will be irritated."
For all of his life, Shamsur Rahman believed that true evenhandedness meant that those in need always were allowed more. As he left us, he did so with that most elusive of qualities charm. We of his friends, readers, admirers, and family who remain, have a special burden. We have lived with nobility. He was a person who regarded life as one long attempt to provide a happy moment or so for another person, whether through his poetry, or other writings, or his company. Always he was outraged by those who rushed about, shouldering past others, their sides lathered with effort, horses in some cheap race, as they pawed for material success. He knew that life belonged to those who seek out the weary, sit with the defeated in life and work, understand the clumsy. And do this not as some duty. But do it with the cheerful realisation that we are part of it all.
He thought the word 'duty' meant that each day there should be a word or gesture that would cause someone else to smile over the life about them. His contempt was reserved for those who did not attempt this. Who are you, he would say, to go through a day, knowing another day is to follow, and another after that, and knowing that it is all ceaseless, and still you refuse to join with us and help soften the path of those about you?
He was a poet and writer utterly unspoiled. I thank Allah for the high privilege of having known him and spending happy moments with him. He leaves us with a tradition of decency that we must attempt to carry on. His strength was such that even if those of us here today stumble now and then, I think the line of decency of Shamsur Rahman will reveal itself time after time in whatever generations there are to come.
As was said of other aristocrats before him:
Earth received an honoured guest.
As my readers know, I normally end this column with some light-hearted banter, amusing anecdotes, my quizzical views about life. Today I cannot end this column without quoting T.S. Eliot (only partially):

The Burial of the Dead
April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the collonade,
And we went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.

What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you:
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
-The Waste Land, 1922.

The Waste Land was T.S Eliot's first major poem, using an essential allusive and elliptical technique to put across the view that urban civilization was sterile and insatisfying. As we all know T.S. Eliot went on to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1948, for, as his Nobel citation says: "...his outstanding contribution to present-day poetry." Shamsur Rahman's contribution to present day poetry in Bangla is also outstanding, but he could not win the Nobel Prize, though all of us wished he had.

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