ePaper_2nd Edition_October 19, 2016

18
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2016
DT
Feature
A Bangladeshi poet in Serbia
Attending the Smederevo’s Poet Autumn
is to commit suicide, but I have
found ways to adjust to my life by
being involved in bringing more
poets together, while I culture
the urge to write. The journey
of fighting the devil, as Ibsen
put it, has allowed me to put my
thoughts into words as I live my
life of an immigrant, writing in
my mother tongue. My first two
novels are thus about immigrants
in Sweden: Oi Ondhakar Ase (The
Dark Sounds 2016) and Varatiya
Meye (The Girl from India 2014).”
This year, a
Bangladeshi poet
was featured for
the first time at the
Smederevo’s Poet
Autumn
• Reema Islam
A Serbian city with a history that
dates it to antiquity, the River
Danube and a poetry festival,
Smederevo sets the perfect tone
for a cultural experience. The
Smederevo’s Poet Autumn is an
annual festival in its 47th year
that brings in poets from across
the globe to meet at this cross
road between the Eastern and
Western outposts of Europe. The
Danube flows through Smederevo
connecting it to the larger
network of European nations as
this multicultural city welcomes
all for a festival of poetry, music
and literature.
This year, a Bangladeshi
poet was featured for the first
time at the Smederevo’s Poet
Autumn. Poet, playwright,
translator, essayist and social
commentator Anisur Rahman
is based in Sweden, and is a
member of the Swedish Writers’
Union, the Playwrights Union in
Sweden and Honourary Member
of the Swedish PEN. Reading
out his work in Bangla, Rahman
was then translated on stage
into Serbian. Poets from other
countries included UK, Spain,
Bulgaria, Iran, Italy, Bosnia &
Herzegovina, Turkey, Macedonia,
Poland, Argentina, Greece and
Bangladesh. Every year, the
poetry festival awards the Golden
Key, the Little Golden Key and
the Golden String. The Golden
Key was awarded to British poet
Sean O Brien, and the festival also
published five translated books,
including one with Rahman’s
work.
The festival took off with a
visit to the royal Palace of Milan
Obrenovic, the Serbian king
from the 19th century. The city
also houses a fortress where the
despot ruler Đurađ Branković
(reigned from 1427-1456, CE) had
installed special Venetian glass
for his windows and an acoustic
palace, to enjoy music all the
better. A wine tasting tour of the
famed vineyards of the region
was followed by a performance
of traditional Serbian dances in
traditional gear from the early
20th century. School children
have always been a major part of
the festival’s outreach programs
and poets were taken to schools
to read out their books. As part
of their vision to encourage
readers, the festival organisers,
Goran Djordjevic and his team
including Aleksandra Djokovic,
had distributed around 10,000
books all over local schools in the
area. The students proved very
animated with their questions as
they got a chance to interact with
the visiting poets.
The festival invites poets to
speak in their own language while
a Serbian translates it on stage
and this year, Bangla and Persian
were the two languages featured
for the first time. Rahman
presented two of his poems,
which he felt could speak to an
international audience.
Speaking on his experience of
writing in exile, Rahman quotes
Baudelaire, who said “in order
to become a writer, you need to
capture your boyhood memories”.
Rahman feels being a writer is a
never ending journey, carrying
Story of Water
and Stone
I split the heart within my
heart,
Build a house from stone.
I see my life inside–
A devastating storm within.
I see the sea in your eyes
Rising above water level.
Water embraces water
Where you see our house.
High tide strikes high tide,
The sun absorbs water,
Clouds suck clouds,
And life strains to breathe.
mirrors on both sides - “but to be
honest I have also received a lot
of help from people back home
like the president of the National
Poetry Council of Bangladesh,
poet Muhammad Samad, who
was a resident professor at the
University of Dhaka when I
was studying there,” confesses
Rahman.
He added: - “Life is a journey
and I consider my time in
Scandinavia as a part of this. Poet
Shahid Quadri said to emigrate
The poetry festival ran from
October 11 to 13, 2016 and this
year, the Warsaw poetry festival
director from Poland visited,
as part of a liaison between the
Serbians and their counterparts in
the region. Against the backdrop
of a town with one of the largest
lowland fortresses of Europe and
an old tradition of celebrating
cultural festivals, the Smederevo
Poetry Festival enthralled local
and international audiences
likewise. •