Abdus Salam (Pen name: Raj Reader) is one of the major poets and translators in Bangladeshi Writing in English. Born on 9th September 1986 in Rajshahi, he writes in both English and Bengali at ease. His poems have got published in poemhunter, Spillwords.com and many other well recognized international publishing poetry platforms. He translated also a book of ‘‘Contemporary American Poetry’’ into Bengali. Playfully sometimes writes stories for the children. Likes acting, listening to music and watching movies. He has five books to his credit. He has recently translated ‘‘The Poet’s Urn: Bangabandhu in Timeless Translation’’ and trying to complete the trio with ‘‘The Poet’s Urn: Liberation War in Timeless Translation’’ and ‘‘The Poet’s Urn: Language Movement in Timeless Translation’’. His poems have been translated in couples of languages including Spanish and French. Moreover, his pieces are available in international journals, sites, newspapers, blogs etc. He had been interviewed in one of the leading newspapers of the country. He directs Dhaka Translation Academy where he trains the young translators. Nowadays he teaches English Literature in a private university.
As far as the poetry book is concerned, Raj Reader, the ardent lover of poetry, one of the emerging talented poets of Bangladesh states ‘‘If I live one day I will write poetry’’ (Reader 6) in his preface to the 2017 pioneer collection of poetries, the book titled Vrindavan of Love and Other Poems. This book emerged as a visualization of world myth. Stratified into two sections- one long poem called ‘‘Vrindavan of Love’’ which is subdivided into 4 Books or parts and 12 short poems called ‘‘Hapi’’, ‘‘A morning with a street hawker’’, ‘‘Lady of marshy Land’’, ‘‘Song of February’’, ‘‘The Wrath of God’’, ‘‘The Sons of Niobe’’, ‘‘Song of the Cloud’’, ‘‘Kiss’’, ‘‘Pyscha’’ ‘‘Objection against the assessment of apparition’’, ‘‘Fratricide’’ and ‘‘In response to the chief of Seattle’’, the poet writes ‘‘poetry for poetry’s shake’’ (Reader 6). This review examines the book in details.
Firstly, I think that this book is a must needed addition in the field of English Literature. In this text, the author explores extensively the usage of literary devices like mythological allusions to a great extent. In the first poem of this book called ‘‘Hapi’’, he takes the image of Hapi, the ancient God of River Nile whose statue has been found recently. Here, Hapi reflects on his powerful dominance on the river Nile by declaring ‘‘I govern the Nile and remain Silent’’ (Reader 9) although he is a mere relic of history now though he ruled over Egypt in the past.
Secondly, what makes the poet Raj Reader unique is his inventive portrayal of different mythological characters and their intertextuality. According to the poet, biblical figure Cain, the first son of Adam and Eve, in ‘‘Fratricide’’ is a rebel as he challenges the biblical law of his Majesty by killing his own younger brother Abel. Another poem titled ‘‘Song of February’’ mourns the death of Adonis, another figure of Greek mythology and it is the month of February where Bangladeshi blogger Avijit Roy was assassinated for his secular political views. Besides, ‘‘The Wrath of God’’ interlinks the 1952 Language movement of Bangladesh which caused immense bloodshed of Bengalees as we protested to speak in Urdu. Aside from this, the poet in ‘‘The Sons of Niobe’’ associates the killing of the seven heroes (BirSrestha) or those who have sacrificed their lives in 1971 Liberation war of Bangladesh with the murdered seven sons of Niobe, a character of Greek myth. The focus also remains on Icarus who perished with waxen wings for going too near the sun and ‘‘swift footed’’ (19) Achilles in this poem to display those who died young. The comparison of all these different varied characters throws light on the sheer imagination, creativity and originality of the poet.
In addition, playing with rhymes in poems like “A morning with a street hawker”, ‘‘Lady of marshy Land’’, ‘‘Song of the Cloud’’ and ‘‘Kiss’’ exhibits his skills to play with rhythms. The lines of ‘‘Kiss’’ rhymes perfectly like
That was the best Kiss
You did miss
That was the best Kiss
Didn’t unleash (Reader 15)
Furthermore, grasp of iambic pentameter and hexameter in ‘‘In response to the chief of Seattle’’ is another excellent aspect of his writing. Words tune with each other in this oeuvre like “Seattle- tale, know-go, earth-hearth, live-give, brother-mother, dark-mark, seen-been, nest-forest” (Reader 13).
Peppered with romance, especially in ‘‘Lady of marshy Land’’, ‘‘Song of the Cloud’’ and ‘‘Kiss’’, what I really appreciated is the unreciprocated love of the lovers. I can visually delineate the dark eyed lady of marshy Land leaving her lover sadly. In addition, the hair of the beloved in ‘‘Song of the Cloud’’ leaves emotional scar on the lover who failed to disclose his passion when she was near. I can feel his pain as he outbursts:
I could not tell the thing when she was near
What did I feel when I touched her hand bare? (Reader 14)
It is an arduous task for a writer to maintain rhyme throughout the poem and here we can detect ‘‘morn-gone-dawn- gone’’ ‘(Reader 14) in the first stanza followed by ‘‘found-sound-ground-hound’’ ‘(Reader 14) in the second stanza. ‘‘Moan-shone-gone-gone’’, ‘‘hair-share-near-bare’’ and ‘‘brain-rain-shroud-cloud’’ ‘(Reader 14) are words harmoniously placed in the next three stanzas respectively by rhymer RR.
Exploration of various modern themes like attraction, physical love, unattained lust and so on are definitely feathers in the cap of RR. The fatal attraction towards a woman whom the poet could not obtain in ‘‘Kiss’’ and the depiction of holy Pyscha, a prostitute in the poem ‘‘Pyscha’’ in day, winter, broad daylight roaming in a richshaw represents the ugly reality of our society.
Another area where the book can contribute much is his long 484 lined poem ‘‘Vrindavan of Love’’ which is written in the elevated grand form of an epic with a long journey of two lovers with 4 Book sections called
- Book One: (Prologue) Epic of Our Time
- Book Two: An Old Prophecy
- Book Three: Prophecy Came True
- Book Four: The Song of High Fall (Reader 22)
This poem describes the expel of the lovers from Vrindavan who are not allowed to kiss and share physical relationship. What I observed here is that all lines are full of references from many Literature texts. The first apparent connection is with Hindu God, Sri Krishna ‘‘the butter Thief of Gokul’’ who is known for his spiritual love for Radha. In fact, the place Vrindavan is the abode of Sri Krishna with his beloved Radha. Many other references, especially of the Pied Piper, Liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971, William Shakespeare as ‘‘the bard of Avon’’(25), the newly widow Behula looking for new lands, the folklore of the prince using two sticks of gold and silver to rescue the princess, the James Joyce’s Dubliner girl Eveline in ‘‘Eveline’’ who could not flee with the Buenos Aires boy, ‘‘blind prophet’’ (27) Tiresias of ‘‘Oedipus the King’’, John Webster’s ‘‘The Duchess of Malfi’’ where the duchess died young, ‘‘Two hemispheres met like the old compass’’ (30) of ‘‘A Valediction Forbidding Mourning’’ by metaphysical poet John Donne and so on are part and parcel of this poem . Incorporation of many Bengali words like ‘‘tata thaithai’’ (36), use of Italian word ‘‘sampre’’ (43) and Urdu diction like ‘‘Ye khel hogan ahi dubara’’ (43) reveals the mastery of the poet and his apt expertise in the fusion of many languages. However, anyone without any reading of Literature texts will find it really difficult to read this poem. This means that this poetry is for experts.
RR’s ironical criticism is also extraordinary. ‘‘In response to the chief of Seattle’’ is full of satire. The Chief of Seattle condemns the white people’s disrespectful exploitation of land of the Native Americans. The poet adopts the viewpoint of the Whites and in this way, he criticizes the European colonial mindset. Apart from this, Ezra Pound’s description of the metro passengers as ghosts, lifeless in ‘‘In a Station of the Metro’’ is criticized in ‘‘Objection against the assessment of apparition’’ as to the poet ‘‘they are real: living, breathing, walking and talking’’ (Reader 21) who are ‘‘born human: worthy survival’’ (Reader 21).
All in all, being the first attempted book of poetry, I would like to congratulate the Bangladeshi writer Raj Reader who has dared to attempt mythological allusions, biblical references, intertextuality and rhymes in his first poetry book. If we look at the title of the book, it is truly captivating and the names of all poems superbly suits with the main theme of them. His resourceful knowledge on many Literature texts which he has used in all the poems shows how well versed he is in his field. His writing is a blend of diverse texts and I think his future endeavors will escalate his potentiality as a true poet. The fact that he is writing poems in English which is not his mother tongue further displays his mastery on English Language. I would recommend all poetry lovers as well as Literature readers to study this English poetry book as it is a rich source of English Literature.