The power of poetry transcends borders

Photo: Prabir Das

As the afternoon glow set in on the lawns of Bangla Academy, named 'Bottola' for the Hay Festival, Urdu Urdu poet Fatema Hassan and French-Indian poet and dance curator Karthika Nair recited their poems on the opening day of the Hay festival.

Prior to performing her own poetry, Karthika Nair read excerpts from renowned dancer-choreographer's award-winning production DESH, which she co-wrote. “I am thinking of it especially today because of so much talk about cultural identity, the importance of language and what Bangladesh did for its linguistic freedom,” she said.

She later recited from her own poetry based on sagas of Mahabharata: the first piece was called “Constency1”, which she followed up with tales circling Amba, Shikhandi and a soldier dying in the battle field. Nilanjana Roy, the author of two fantasy novels “The Wildings” and “The Hundred Names of Darkness” joined Nair in reciting a poem.

Fatema Hassan recited Urdu poems and a Ghazal (her own composition) as couplet in Urdu classic poetry style, while novelist and short story writer Aamer Hussein translated those in English. She set off her part with “A Tribute to Sufi Poet Sachchal Sarmast”, who is a poet of seven languages. At the event, she also recited several Urdu poems of her own with one translated by her daughter.

Fatema Hassan has published three collections of poetry, a selection of short stories; and a collection of essays on the work of contemporary Urdu writers. She has also written about feminist literature and edited three books on the subject. In 2011, she was awarded 'Tamgha-e-Imtiaz' in recognition of her excellence.

Another poetry session on the day was performed by renowned Bengali poet Joy Goswami at the lawn.