Poetry in any other language...
Karim Waheed
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet," said Romeo in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Poetry invigorates us just like that although some elements maybe lost in translation. However, the essence is captured altogether. Poet Aminur Rahman is well aware of this phenomenon, since his Bangla poems have been translated in several languages and well received among poetry buffs. Aminur Rahman embarked into the arena of poetry way back in 1980. His first book, Bishashikorotole, was published in 1989 and the readers seemed to be smitten with his penmanship. Hridoypure Dubshatar, published in 1991, was one of the bestsellers in the Ekushey book fair that year. Rahman believes in 'romanticism' and that is the style prominent in his poetry. In 2001, Indian literary personality Sudeep Sen edited and translated some of Rahman's poems and AARK Arts in Britain published the collection titled, Love and other Poems. According to Sen, "Upon my request, he (Rahman) would repeatedly read his poems out aloud in Bangla while I took copious notes, notations on syllabics, cadence, rhyme and structure. The goal was to make the English versions as rich and textured as the Bangla originals, not to lose the intended meaning." In 2002, Colombian poet Carlos Bedoya translated Rahman's poems in Spanish on the occasion on Medellin poetry festival. The collection is called La Escultura. Rahman's poems were translated in German by renowned Austrian poet Manfred Chobot in 2003. Last year, Rahman's love poems were translated in Japanese. His confidant, Japanese poet, Kazuko Shiraishi, edited the poems and they were translated in Japanese by Yusuke Keida. The same year, at a Malaysian poetry festival, Hazi Hamdan Yahiya, ex-director of a literary organisation Dewan Bahasa Don, translated Rahman's poetry in Malay. Furthermore, his poem, Bhashkorjo has been translated in English, German, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, Spanish, Malay, Japanese and Urdu this year. Rahman believes his Bangla poetry does not lose much of its essence when translated in other languages because he has direct contacts with the poets and literary personalities who have translated and edited his poems. In recognition of his talent, Rahman was recently invited to attend the 2005 World Poetry festival in Taiwan. He read his poems and participated in the seminar on 'Aesthetics of Reading and Translation of Poetry' along with other renowned poets from different countries.
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Aminur Rahman |
