Rumana Fouzia Choudhury deciphers the complexities of text and verse, of notable works from from Bengal Publications
Selected & Edited by Sudeep Sen
320 Pages, Tk 500
Bengal Publications Ltd.
In a bright pink jacket, the World English Poetry anthology is a cocktail party of eighty-three world-renowned poets, including Amit Chaudhuri, Kaiser Haq and Vikram Seth. A staggering collection of over 200 poems, which one can read out loud to oneself in solitude, or quietly (or not) when in company. This book offers a multitude of multicultural conversations. As Sudeep Sen, a celebrated modern poet himself says in the preface, “The poems are intellectually stringent, beautifully chiselled, many wonderfully oral, and pitch-perfect. They engage with history, politics, society, science, and emotions of love, loss, grief and more—poems that are public and private, universal and personal. The language is simultaneously measured, formal, understated, raucous, and forceful, but always with a lyric quality of fine tonal cadence and carefully calibrated register.”
If you want to take a break from the virtual world, these poets’ play with language is bound to delight.
This Old World
By Zeeshan Khan
191 Pages, Tk 2000
Bengal Publications Ltd.
There is no frigate like a book, and This Old World is for all of us who long for adventure and wish to travel to far-off lands. Zeeshan Khan’s marvellous scrapbook features his expeditions all the way from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan to Iran, Georgia, Greece, Italy and Spain. It consists of solid frames of ancient monuments juxtaposed with candid shots of locals and contemporary graffiti which may soon become curiosities for generations to come.
Dedicated to his late brother who taught the author “to live with courage and passion,” Khan also credits his parents, who were keen on travelling themselves and instilled in him wanderlust and a love for learning about different cultures. He says, “My eccentric extended family is also to blame for my bend of mind. The various relatives whose wide-eyed enthusiasm and ability to wring every drop of adventure from life – be it diving from London to Pakistan, cycling from Dhaka to Tangail or diving into the Thames to save a drowning person-influenced me tremendously during my childhood.”
An inspiration for budding voyageurs, or self-appointed students of history, culture and architecture, this book is required reading.