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Poetry

A valley of poetry

Aminur Rahman, the young and distinctive voice in contemporary Bengali poetry, attends world's top poetry festival in Colombia, Latin America next month

ZIAUL KARIM
SEEKING beauty and love in every act of his existence, Aminur Rahman is a poetlover. The extraordinary texture of his verse and the diversity and intensity of love evoked in the images and conceits of his poems will woo the poetry loving people of Colombia where he will be featuring at the XII International Poetry Festival to be held in Medellin.
Standing 1560 meters above sea level, Medellin is the city of 'eternal spring' with its bright tapestry of valleys, sparkling even brighter with the convergence of poet-celebrities from around the world.
With the participation of poets such as the Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, Bernard Noel of France and Satoko Tamura of Japan, this mega event promises considerable star wattage when it starts in June.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg: for ten days the poetry devotees of the Medellin city will savour the multicultural cuisine of world poetry to be served by a huge contingent of 80 poets participating in the festival from around the globe.
For ten days, beginning on June 21, a festivity whirlwind will fill the days and nights of the poetry fanatic city of Medellin: journalists and television cameras will be in search of famous faces and will closely follow the poetry reading sessions at 22 different venues sprawled in the city.
Birthplace of one of the most prolific artist-sculptors of the modern art Fernando Botero, Medellin proudly displays Botero's imposing sculptures in grand parks and boulevards. And the city's Museo de Antioquia has in its treasury the largest collection of Botero's paintings and sculptures. Last year Botero donated his personal collection to the museum. Impressive, this collection features works of such heavyweights of modern art as Antoni Tapies, Roberto Sebastian Echaurren Matta, and Frank Stella.
A meaty anthology of 600 pages featuring poems (translated into Spanish) by the participating poets coincides with the festival. Aminur Rahman's poem 'The Sculpture' has been anthologized for the coveted volume. The poem is a beautiful description of how a lover creates his beloved in his imagination: "With my eyes shut, I sit / amid the fog's heavy sheets / as its frost settles / on my cheek, ear, and nose. / The same hands, / the same lips, the same eyes -- / I find them with such ease-- / Your torso floats on the river; / I shall conquer its flow.
Sweet speaking and reticent, Aminur is a perfectionist: quality rather than quantity is his concern. He has published two book of poems Bishashikorotole (1989) and Hridoypure Dubshatar (1991), a
VCD Nivriti Nirvarata -- Solitary Dependence (1998) and a CD Nirbachita Abritti-- Selected Recitations (2000). His poems have appeared in the Six Seasons Review, The Daily Star, The Independent, The Bangladesh Observer, among other leading dailies and magazines of Bangladesh.
Form must be foregrounded in any discussion of Aminur's poetry because it is that which gives his poetry its intensity. His crisp syntax and broken lines suggest what goes in a lover's mind when he is madly in love: 'You aren't there, / what shall I do? / Love's / chalk-marks. // To Death, / To Life-- / it is all / the same thing. // When will I / and you / go to / the heart's shore?
"I feel extremely fortunate for having been invited at the XII International Poetry Festival in Medellin. This festival is perhaps the largest gathering of poets in the world. I am eagerly looking forward to meeting poets from a diverse background
and culture. The intimate interaction between creative minds that the festival would create is essential for world poetry today, particularly at this age of globalisation," says visibly elated Aminur Rahman.
Aminur -- who does not spare even death his love in his poem: "Embrace me in my death's ecstasy" -would surely evoke love in the hearts of the poetry lovers of Medellin in June.