My East BengalSyed Ali Ahsan My East Bengal, is like a wonderous cool river What an amazingly cool river is my East Bengal How quiet and again how gay In sudden overflowing abandon. Once loud and noisy Many a time sleepy and lethargic; At other times A continuous flood of subdued voice. You are bottomless In the overflowing water of monsoon. A heaven of generous heart, A wide expanse of life Stretching beyond the horizon. A greeting like the boat...
Bimal Guha :Ahsan Habib (1917-1985) poet and journalist, was born on 2 February 1917 in the village of Shankarpasha in...
Mohammad Daniul Huq and Aminur Rahman : (From the previous issue) Shamsur Rahman’s Octopus (1983) and Montage (1985) depict the sufferings of an individual due to internal as well as external compulsions. A trilogy on this theme was created by Abu Zafar Shamsuddin through his Padma Meghna Jamuna (1974), Samkar Samkirtan (1980) and the pre-independence work Bhawal Garher Upakhyan. Shawkat Osman’s Artanad (1985) and Selina Husain’s Yapita Jiban (1981) were portrayals of the fundamental sentiments of the language movement as...
Allah Amar Rasul Amar [(My Allah, My Rusul), Collection of dedicated poems on Allah, the Creator of the universe and...
Sheikh Shafiqer Sixya (Learnings of Sk. Shafiq, based on the philosophy of life’s supernatural, natural phenomena.) By Sheikh Shafiqul Islam....
Badiuzzaman :Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah (1885-1969) educationist, writer and philologist, was born at Peyara village of 24 Parganas in West Bengal...
Mahmood Nasir Jahangiri :Anchalik Bhasar Abhidhan a dictionary of regional dialects of Bangladesh. Edited by Dr Muhammad Shahidullah, the Anchalik Bhasar Abhidhan was first published in 1965. The Linguistic Survey of India (1903-1928) by George Abraham Grierson was the first serious work on the regional forms of the Bangla language. Similar to this survey, a project for surveying local dialects was undertaken by the Bangla Academy under the general supervision of Dr Muhammad Shahidullah in 1958. Different universities, colleges, high...
Mohammad Daniul Huq and Aminur Rahman : (From the previous issue) The efforts at writing Bangla plays in the first phase on the basis of contemporary period and society continued with vigour in the second phase. The plays in this phase were varied and tried to portray the social realities. Several of Munier Chowdhury’s powerful plays, including some translated works, were published at this time. Munier Chowdhury’s Dandakaranya (1966) was written on the subject of contemporary society. His play Chithi...
A slumber did my spirit sealWilliam WordsworthA slumber did my spirit seal; I had no human fears; She seemed a thing that could not feel The touch of earthly years. No motion has she now, no force; She neither hears nor sees; Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course, With rocks, and stones, and trees. The Navigator(Punjeri)Farrukh AhmadWhen will the night end, punjeri? Still your sky overcast with cloud? Your star and crescent moon not yet up? You on mast and...
Annadasankar Roy :Art is free-in all conditions, and in all time. But artists are not so. The extent to which the country and time give freedom to an artist, he is free to that extent-not more than that. To broaden the boundary of freedom, to make freedom meaningful, to be independent and unchecked in the work of creation, the artists, across time, have made lots of efforts. What have been achieved by too much labour, to preserve this one has...
Abul Hossain, one of the pioneers of modern Bangla poetry, has breathed his last on the night of the 29th...
Mohammad Daniul Huq and Aminur Rahman :(From the previous issue)Unlike other branches of literature in this phase, plays did not flourish to any significant extent. Religious and social taboos about plays as well as various limitations in staging them thwarted the development of drama. Most plays of the time were based on historical stories, completely detached from the realities of contemporary life. Of these plays, Akbaruddin’s Nadir Shah (1953) is worth mentioning. Poet Jasimuddin used folklore to create Padmapar, Madhumala...