Celebration & Other Stories

The history of Bangla literature dates back to the seventh century. The richness of this literature cannot be understood by the world audience unless it is translated.  Srimadbhagavata was first translated from Sanskrit into Bangla by Maladhar Basu. Krittivas Ojha translated Ramayana into Bangla in 15th century. Rabindranath Tagore won the Nobel Prize in 1913 after he translated his Gitanjali as Song Offerings into English in 1912. The Pen Bangladesh held many workshops and seminars on translation. Professor Dr Niaz Zaman had pointed out in the Translation Theory and Practice edited by her in 2004, published by writers.ink, that  it was declared in the conference on the literary translation by American Center for PEN in 1970 that a translator has a right to be recognized as the "re creator of the work." Many universities in Bangladesh have taken up translation studies since then and many books are being translated by writers writing in English. ULAB has opened up a translation center for famous Bangla texts to be translated. They are also running workshops in collaboration with the British Council for a number of years now.

Today's Bangla writers' works are being showcased more and more as translators are working  hard in the field. There was a misconception that no good translations of  original texts can be found in Bangladesh. The writers who write in English and translate have come far since then. We now have many translators who have earned their name in doing translation.

Celebration and Other Stories is one such book By Masrufa Ayesha Nusrat. Published by Samabesh Books with 140 pages and a very subtle cover page the book looks very attractive. In the slim  book she has complied  five authors' fifteen stories which have been translated by her. Anwara Syed Haq won the Bangla Academy Shahitya Puroskar in 2010 among many other prizes.  As a writer and a practicing psychiatrist she has written numerous collections of short stories, novels, autobiographies and children's books. Three of her stories have been included in Celebration and Other Stories. All of these stories have strong female figures as their central characters.  Annihilation, is the story about a terrorist who eloped with a girl by tricking her. He is an outlaw and has no compassion for anyone as he grew up being maltreated by society.  After staying in an abandoned, secluded house for thirteen days the girl Buba becomes hysterical and prepares to go back home. He doesn't hesitate to use his gun on her. But at the same time he is mesmerized by seeing the two beautiful Chandrabhora snakes standing up coiling each other's body and mating.  Ms Haq may have tried to portray the extreme opposite traits of human beings in the story. In Pagli, the condition of a mentally disoriented person who should have been always taken care of or protected by society is depicted. On the contrary, here the author portrays how simple village people, mainly men, take advantages of her vulnerability. Her third story Parulee's Flying Episode is more like a magic realism, the plight of a pregnant woman living in dire poverty is described aptly. Masrufa has used very simple, lucid language while translating the stories and is successful in being close to the original texts.

Husne Ara Shahed, a columnist and a creative writer's story Bua and Birthday once again show the discrepancies and anomalies of our society, things we go through every day without really noticing them. Here the writer points out the facts to the readers, even though the stories do not follow the definite shape of a short story and the message does get across. Husne Ara's other story Invitation portrays the stark difference of classes that prevail in our society.

The voices of  women writers of 80s and 90s can be heard in Jharna Rahman, Nasreen Jahan and Papree Rahman's stories.  Jharna Rahman's stories I see horses and The Wise Woman and Magic Mirror show the position of women in ancient times and now. Reading them makes one realize that women have always been thought of the second sex all throughout the ages. In her other story The Nameless, another aspect of womanhood is expressed, which shows that even the name of a woman is not important. As Sona Mia tried to find his mother's name he was scolded off by his maternal uncle and driven off from his home. Since his mother was a Birangona, a fallen women in the war, her family members disowned even her memory.

 Nasreen Jahan is a renowned Bangladeshi writer who was awarded Bangla Academy Puroskar in 1999. Her novel Urruku translated as The Woman Who Flew was awarded with Philips Literary Award in 1994. The three stories translated by Ms Nusrat are very interesting, one of them creates a surreal world for a murderer who is in search of his wife's killer, only not knowing the killer was residing within himself. In the story Evening Mask, Nasreen Jahan showed how the killer of a young maid goes through psychological trauma and finally confesses his crime to his police officer friend. The unique theme in this writer's writing is that she uses magic realism. And she always gives voice to the poor and destitute, those in society who do not or cannot make their voices heard. This story was adapted into a play by a group of young  performers named Brine Pickles at the EMK center.

Papree Rahman, the strong voice of the 90s had written the title story Celebration with a lot of insight. A village woman would have no place if she fails to produce an heir. So Fulmoti's husband decides to remarry. This made Fulmoti make a decision of having a celebration of death. Her second story Revenge is also about making a protest against Efu's husband's second wife. Mohor Ali had taken a second wife when Efu gave birth to two stillborn children. Papree Rahman took the subject of revenge in a very unusual way. Fairy tales of Charbhadrashon is in fact  also a work of magic realism, we find Ms Rahman using this style in many of her works. Altogether the fifteen stories are of diverse topics and portray the rural lives of Bangladeshi women. Most of the writers have made a permanent place in Bangla literature on their own merit. Masrufa had gone a step further by translating them and compiling them in-between two flaps.  Apart from one or two typos, it seems to have been worked on very cautiously and carefully. It is a recommended book for all those who are interested in Bangla literature.

The reviewer is Teacher & Representative, Department of English, Tirunnessa Memorial Medical College & Hospital (TMMC).