In memory of poet Asad Chowdhury

Noted poet and brave freedom fighter Asad Chowdhury has demised and left us alone into an infinite emptiness. He was not only an elder brother to me, but also was my colleague. I know, as he was a man of the soil, he was a poet of the soil as well. Asad Chowdhury is an indispensable name in the era of modern Bangla poetry after Panchpandava. He is an accomplished man of the sixties poetry movement in Bangla language. In his poetry, the nature of Bangla, the sense of its common people and the struggling tradition of Bangladesh have been illuminated with extraordinary uniqueness. Apart from poetry, he has contributed to various literary fields including essays, children's literature, translation, autobiography, travelogue. I have so many memories with elder brother Asad Chowdhury, and opening the box full of those memories will make my heart very heavy. So today I will only discuss about his poetry.

The essence of consciousness in Asad Chowdhury's poetry has filled my mind with true beauty of life. He questions human consciousness, resonating with that question and ending with the persuasive art of poetry, from which the reader discovers a poet's identity from where the readers take a visit to the nature of art in the light of his own characteristics. Standing there, the reader's question is expressed in various ways and his or her heart is filled with a sense of consciousness. In his poetry, Asad Chowdhury immerses the reader in various explanations and investigations. The skill of using words is abstracted in the intense light of the context of history.

Our freedom fight has originated various degrees of shining flame in the consciousness of the poet. He abstracted the liberation war in his poems in various contexts. 'Report 1971' is one such poem:

‘প্রাচ্যেরগানের মতো শোকাহত, কম্পিত, চঞ্চল

বেগবতীতটিনীর মতো স্নিগ্ধ, মনোরম

আমাদেরনারীদের কথা বলি, শোনো।

এ-সবরহস্যময়ী রমণীরা পুরুষের কণ্ঠস্বর শুনে

বৃক্ষেরআড়ালে সরে যায়-

বেড়ারফোঁকর দিয়ে নিজের রন্ধনে

তৃপ্তঅতিথির প্রসন্ন ভোজন দেখে

শুধুমুখ টিপে হাসে।

প্রথমপোয়াতী লজ্জায় অনন্ত হয়ে

কোঁচড়েভরেন অনুজের সংগৃহীত কাঁচা আম, পেয়ারা, চালিতা-

সূর্য্যকেওপর্দা করে এ-সব রমণী

অথচযোহরা ছিলো নির্মম শিকার।’

 

(We are talking about the women who were sad, numb, afraid, restless like songs and yet they are beautiful and pleasant. These mysterious women hide themselves whenever they hear tge voices of men. Such women were kind, soft, tender and innocent. However, they fell victims of the cruelty during 1971 Liberation War.)

 Then there comes the extraordinary line of the poet:

‘বিপন্ন বিস্ময়ে কোরানের বাঁকা-বাঁকা পবিত্র হরফ

বোবা হয়ে চেয়ে দ্যাখে লম্পটের ক্ষুধা।’

(The sacred letters of Quran scripture witness such brutal torture on women with astonishment.) 

Being a Muslim, the poet saw the sacred letters of the scriptures to become dumb in the oppression of women in 1971. The oppression of women during the Liberation War comes as a disgrace in the lines of poetry in many ways. On the other hand, strong artificial consonance makes his poetry shine like the rainbow. The reader can easily see that the vivid expression of the poet is how strong. The essence of the poet's consciousness do not bow to any external forces and here is the victory of the poet and poetry.

 The poem ends with the expansion of secular spirit. Our flying 'flag of freedom' contains the manifestation of non-communal spirit of the Lberation War. The poet placed the bond of friendship above the religion or the caste in the lines of the poem:

‘ভিক্টোরিয়া পার্কের গীর্জার ঘড়ি,

মুসল্লীর সেজদায় আনত মাথা

নিরপেক্ষ বুলেটের অন্তিম আজানে স্থবির হয়েছে।

বুদ্ধের ক্ষমার মূর্তি ভাঁড়ের মতন

ভ্যাবাচেকা খেয়ে পড়ে আছে, তাঁর মাথার ওপরে

এক ডজন শকুন মৈত্রী মৈত্রী করে

হয়তো বা উঠেছিলো কেঁদে।’

কেঁদে কেঁদে মৈত্রীর বাণী ছড়িয়েছিল এক ডজন শকুন। শকুনের ডানায় নেমেছিল মেঘের দল। মুছিয়েছিল অশ্রুভেজা চোখের জল। স্বাধীনতা চোখের জলে, নির্যাতনের নিষ্ঠুর থাবার নিচে রমণীকূলের শোনিতে বিম্বিত করে ইতিহাসের সত্য। নারী-পুরুষ নির্বিশেষে অমর যোদ্ধাদের মৃত্যুঞ্জয়ী চেতনায় প্রস্ফুটিত হয় স্বাধীনতার রক্তগোলাপ।

(No places of the God--Mosque, church, mandir or pagoda--were safe. No pious man was safe from the bullets of the hanadars. The independence was achieved at a high cost. Innocent men and women and children sacrificed their lives to the get the scarlet sun of the freedom.)

In his poem 'Shaheedder proti', he wrote:

‘তোমাদের যা বলার ছিল

বলছে কি তা বাংলাদেশ?

(Did Bangladesh reflect what you were about to express?)

When this poem was written, Bangladesh was yet to be vocal about the pride of the martyrs as no national flag can be flown on the vehicles of Razakars because the independent country was born in exchange for the lives if millions. War criminals cannot show supremacy. So the lust of staying in power with the assistance of the criminals affected the glory of the sacrifice of martyrs for this country. That’s why this poem draws it end with the same question:

‘তোমাদের যা বলার ছিল

বলছে কি তা বাংলাদেশ?’

(Did Bangladesh reflect what you were about to express?)

Poet's question remains unspoken. The poet placed his queries to the martyrs in a loud voice. Once the anger of this question shook the people of the country during the rise of the militancy. At one point, the people of the country saw that the war criminals were tried. Punishment has been executed. The immortal sacrifice of the martyrs was finally radiated.

The poet again in questioned the absence of good sense in politics, "I was a real man then." When? Poetry tells when this time is. It was during the liberation war.

Another poem starts with:

‘নদীর জলে আগুন ছিলো

আগুন ছিলো বৃষ্টিতে

আগুন ছিল বীরঙ্গনার

উদাস-করা দৃষ্টিতে।’

(Flame were everywhere. Flame were in river, rain and in the eyes of Biranganas.)

After independence, the Bangabandhu-government gave the title Birangana to the brave women during our Liberation War. At that time women were oppressed by the Pakistani army on the one hand and on the other hand they were the strongest human beings to sustain the social structure of the time during the war. They were never backward people and were not outsiders during the struggle to get a free land. Besides their own torture, their eyes were dulled by the pain of losing their relatives. The poet saw flame in that vision. The truth of freedom fight lied there. He says in another place of the poem:

‘আগুন ছিল মুক্তি সেনার

Noted poet and brave freedom fighter Asad Chowdhury has demised and left us alone into an infinite emptiness. He was not only an elder brother to me, but also was my colleague. I know, as he was a man of the soil, he was a poet of the soil as well. Asad Chowdhury is an indispensable name in the era of modern Bangla poetry after Panchpandava. He is an accomplished man of the sixties poetry movement in Bangla language. In his poetry, the nature of Bangla, the sense of its common people and the struggling tradition of Bangladesh have been illuminated with extraordinary uniqueness. Apart from poetry, he has contributed to various literary fields including essays, children's literature, translation, autobiography, travelogue. I have so many memories with elder brother Asad Chowdhury, and opening the box full of those memories will make my heart very heavy. So today I will only discuss about his poetry.

The essence of consciousness in Asad Chowdhury's poetry has filled my mind with true beauty of life. He questions human consciousness, resonating with that question and ending with the persuasive art of poetry, from which the reader discovers a poet's identity from where the readers take a visit to the nature of art in the light of his own characteristics. Standing there, the reader's question is expressed in various ways and his or her heart is filled with a sense of consciousness. In his poetry, Asad Chowdhury immerses the reader in various explanations and investigations. The skill of using words is abstracted in the intense light of the context of history.

Our freedom fight has originated various degrees of shining flame in the consciousness of the poet. He abstracted the liberation war in his poems in various contexts. 'Report 1971' is one such poem:

‘প্রাচ্যের গানের মতো শোকাহত, কম্পিত, চঞ্চল

বেগবতী তটিনীর মতো স্নিগ্ধ, মনোরম

আমাদের নারীদের কথা বলি, শোনো।

এ-সব রহস্যময়ী রমণীরা পুরুষের কণ্ঠস্বর শুনে

বৃক্ষের আড়ালে সরে যায়-

বেড়ার ফোঁকর দিয়ে নিজের রন্ধনে

তৃপ্ত অতিথির প্রসন্ন ভোজন দেখে

শুধু মুখ টিপে হাসে।

প্রথম পোয়াতী লজ্জায় অনন্ত হয়ে

কোঁচড়ে ভরেন অনুজের সংগৃহীত কাঁচা আম, পেয়ারা, চালিতা-

সূর্য্যকেও পর্দা করে এ-সব রমণী

অথচ যোহরা ছিলো নির্মম শিকার।’

(We are talking about the women who were sad, numb, afraid, restless like songs and yet they are beautiful and pleasant. These mysterious women hide themselves whenever they hear tge voices of men. Such women were kind, soft, tender and innocent. However, they fell victims of the cruelty during 1971 Liberation War.)

 Then there comes the extraordinary line of the poet:

‘বিপন্ন বিস্ময়ে কোরানের বাঁকা-বাঁকা পবিত্র হরফ

বোবা হয়ে চেয়ে দ্যাখে লম্পটের ক্ষুধা।’

(The sacred letters of Quran scripture witness such brutal torture on women with astonishment.) 

Being a Muslim, the poet saw the sacred letters of the scriptures to become dumb in the oppression of women in 1971. The oppression of women during the Liberation War comes as a disgrace in the lines of poetry in many ways. On the other hand, strong artificial consonance makes his poetry shine like the rainbow. The reader can easily see that the vivid expression of the poet is how strong. The essence of the poet's consciousness do not bow to any external forces and here is the victory of the poet and poetry.

 The poem ends with the expansion of secular spirit. Our flying 'flag of freedom' contains the manifestation of non-communal spirit of the Lberation War. The poet placed the bond of friendship above the religion or the caste in the lines of the poem:

‘ভিক্টোরিয়া পার্কের গীর্জার ঘড়ি,

মুসল্লীর সেজদায় আনত মাথা

নিরপেক্ষ বুলেটের অন্তিম আজানে স্থবির হয়েছে।

বুদ্ধের ক্ষমার মূর্তি ভাঁড়ের মতন

ভ্যাবাচেকা খেয়ে পড়ে আছে, তাঁর মাথার ওপরে

এক ডজন শকুন মৈত্রী মৈত্রী করে

হয়তো বা উঠেছিলো কেঁদে।’

কেঁদে কেঁদে মৈত্রীর বাণী ছড়িয়েছিল এক ডজন শকুন। শকুনের ডানায় নেমেছিল মেঘের দল। মুছিয়েছিল অশ্রুভেজা চোখের জল। স্বাধীনতা চোখের জলে, নির্যাতনের নিষ্ঠুর থাবার নিচে রমণীকূলের শোনিতে বিম্বিত করে ইতিহাসের সত্য। নারী-পুরুষ নির্বিশেষে অমর যোদ্ধাদের মৃত্যুঞ্জয়ী চেতনায় প্রস্ফুটিত হয় স্বাধীনতার রক্তগোলাপ।

(No places of the God--Mosque, church, mandir or pagoda--were safe. No pious man was safe from the bullets of the hanadars. The independence was achieved at a high cost. Innocent men and women and children sacrificed their lives to the get the scarlet sun of the freedom.)

In his poem 'Shaheedder proti', he wrote:

‘তোমাদের যা বলার ছিল

বলছে কি তা বাংলাদেশ?

(Did Bangladesh reflect what you were about to express?)

When this poem was written, Bangladesh was yet to be vocal about the pride of the martyrs as no national flag can be flown on the vehicles of Razakars because the independent country was born in exchange for the lives if millions. War criminals cannot show supremacy. So the lust of staying in power with the assistance of the criminals affected the glory of the sacrifice of martyrs for this country. That’s why this poem draws it end with the same question:

‘তোমাদের যা বলার ছিল

বলছে কি তা বাংলাদেশ?’

(Did Bangladesh reflect what you were about to express?)

Poet's question remains unspoken. The poet placed his queries to the martyrs in a loud voice. Once the anger of this question shook the people of the country during the rise of the militancy. At one point, the people of the country saw that the war criminals were tried. Punishment has been executed. The immortal sacrifice of the martyrs was finally radiated.

The poet again in questioned the absence of good sense in politics, "I was a real man then." When? Poetry tells when this time is. It was during the liberation war.

Another poem starts with:

‘নদীর জলে আগুন ছিলো

আগুন ছিলো বৃষ্টিতে

আগুন ছিল বীরঙ্গনার

উদাস-করা দৃষ্টিতে।’

(Flame were everywhere. Flame were in river, rain and in the eyes of Biranganas.)

After independence, the Bangabandhu-government gave the title Birangana to the brave women during our Liberation War. At that time women were oppressed by the Pakistani army on the one hand and on the other hand they were the strongest human beings to sustain the social structure of the time during the war. They were never backward people and were not outsiders during the struggle to get a free land. Besides their own torture, their eyes were dulled by the pain of losing their relatives. The poet saw flame in that vision. The truth of freedom fight lied there. He says in another place of the poem:

‘আগুন ছিল মুক্তি সেনার

স্বপ্ন-ঢলেরবন্যায়-

প্রতিবাদেরপ্রবল ঝড়ে

কাঁপছিলোসব-অন্যায়।’

(Flame were in the dream of freedom fighters. All injustices moved backward in face of protest.)

Once upon a time, the rotten political practices tried to blow away the spirit of real humankind. Speaking of that time, the poet talks about the pain in the last few stanzas of the poem:

‘এখন এ-সব স্বপ্নকথা

দূরের শোনা গল্প,

তখন সত্যি মানুষ ছিলাম

এখন আছি অল্প।’

(Now these all tells are like folk stories but once upon a time those were true stories as we were real human being then.)

 He also expressed the hardship of having these few people in the poem 'Satya Ferrari'. Against the spirit of the Liberation War, the truth has been obscured by the rise of militant fundamentalism. The poet utters the first line 'Kothay palalo satya?' (Where is the truth?). Throughout the poem, he searches for the truth that has become a fugitive. Thus the poet protested against concealing the spirit of the Liberation War. But it is also true that the "Rahu" (bad sign) did not stay in power for long as he spoke about the pain of the time. This was possible due to the courage of the people of the country, their place of resistance and courage to put the truth forward. The philosophy of survival as a true human being. The poet speaks of this courage in the poem 'Barbara Bidler ke':

‘বারবারা এসো,

রবিশঙ্করের সুরে সুরে মুমূর্ষু মানবতাকে গাই

বিবেকের জংধরা দরোজায় প্রবল করাঘাত করি

অন্যায়ের বিপুল হিমালল দেখে এসে ক্রুদ্ধ হই,

সংগঠিত হই

জল্লাদের শাণিত অস্ত্র

সভ্যতার নির্মল পুষ্পকে আহত করার পূর্বে,

দর্শন ও সাহিত্যকে হত্যা করার পূর্বে

এসো বারবারা বজ্র হয়ে বিদ্ধ করি তাকে।’

(Come Barbara, let us sing the glory of humanity, hit hard on the doors of our consciousness, express anger seeing injustices. Let us be united. Let us strike on the evil force before it would hit our civilization, philosophy and literature.)

The reality of the homeland is created in the union of poets and poems. Stars fulfill this reality and unfortunately the radiant reality became darker because of the power seekers. The vision of the poet reflects everything. There is no opportunity to hide. Poet Asad Chowdhury is the poet of this truth.

Author: Writer and Bangladesh Academy Presiden