Bengali-German poetry book presentation of Sheikh Hafizur Rahman

The first ever German translation of the Bengali poetry collection of Sheikh Hafizur Rahman “Der Traum” (The Dream) was published and presented on 12 May 2011 in Schoenau, near Heidelberg in Germany.

Enlarge image (From right to left): Sheikh Hafizur Rahman, H.E. Mr. Mosud Mannan, Alokranjan Dasgupta (© Press Section, German Embassy, Dhaka) The poet Sheikh Hafizur Rahman is a cousin of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh. Sheikh Hafizur Rahman was born in 1954 in Tungipara, a small village in the north-west of Bangladesh. Already as a student of the Jagannath University in Dhaka, Sheikh Hafizur Rahman wrote several poems under the pseudonym “Habib”. Later on, when his writings were accepted by the people and were published as books, he started using his real name. So far 10 of his books were published and the most renowned are: “Nongorer Tori” (2001), “Modhumoti” (2003), “Oporahner Aloy” (2010), “Droher Podaboli” (2011) which were published in Bangladesh, and “Gono Panchali” (2007), released in India.

He also wrote the weekly column “Itihash Kotha Kow” in the weekly newspaper “Khobor”. These writings were later published as a book titled “The Birth of Bangladesh”.

Not only his books but also some of his poems were recited and published as Audio-CDs: “Gono Panchali” (2007, Kolkata) and “Proticcobi o onnanno” (2010, London). Both were created in cooperation with Radio Bangladesh. Moreover, some of his poems were sung by famous singers like Hoimonti Shukla, Srikant Bhattacharya and Sri Radha Bondopadyay. Sheikh Hafizur Rahman won two prizes from Bangladesh in 2000 and 2002 (“Sufi Motahar Hossain Prize”, “Bongobondhu Memorial Prize”) and also one from India in 2003 (“Michael Modhusudon Prize”).

Enlarge image (From right to left): Mr. Marcus Zeitler, Sheikh Hafizur Rahman, H.E. Mr. Mosud Mannan, Alokranjan Dasgupta, Prof. Dr. Hans Harder (© Press Section, German Embassy, Dhaka) Amongst the dignitaries who were present during the occasion in Schoenau were the Ambassador of Bangladesh in the Federal Republic of Germany H.E. Mosud Mannan, the Mayor of the city Schoenau Mr. Marcus Zeitler, the Head of the Indology Department of the South Asian Institute (Heidelberg) Prof. Dr. Hans Harder, the Head of the Bengali Department of the German Radio Deutsche Welle Mr. Abdullah Farook, the President of the Bangla Centre (Berlin) Ms. Nazmun Nesa and the famous poet Alokranjan Dasgupta.

In his speech the Ambassador of Bangladesh in Germany H.E. Mosud Mannan reiterated the cultural bonds between the two countries. The poet Sheikh Hafizur Rahman thanked all attendees for the interest in Bengali literature and especially for the interest in Bengali poems. He furthermore thanked Mr. Christian Weiss of the Draupadi Verlag (the publisher) for taking the initiative to publish this book in Germany.

The book was translated into German by Ashraf-uz-Zaman Sarker, member of the staff of the German Embassy in Dhaka.