Editor’s note

Many words are written every year in remembrance of the spirit of '71. For all our essays, reports and opinion pieces on the legacy of the Liberation War, a certain texture of the history is nevertheless lost amidst the grand political narratives being crafted. At the end of the day, the war manifested in, and left its strongest mark through, emotions, memories, traumas. And capturing the essence of such in between spaces is a job best done by poetry and music. Perhaps no other form so poignantly records the spirit of rebellion and solidarity that rose up in 1971.

Keeping this in mind, we devote this year's Independence Day special supplement to the poetry that came out of the Bangladesh Liberation War. Some of the poems included here were written during and in the short aftermath of the war; others have been penned by contemporary authors who have had to reckon with its legacy through their ancestors. In presenting some of these verses in translation, we seek to reflect yet another aspect of how these poems—and their emotions—endure 52 years since Bangladesh's independence.