Shamsur Rahman (poet)
| Shamsur Rahman | |
|---|---|
| Native name | শামসুর রাহমান |
| Born |
23 October 1929 Dhaka, East Bengal (now Bangladesh) |
| Died | 17 August 2006 (aged 76) Dhaka, Bangladesh |
| Resting place | Dhaka |
| Occupation | poet, journalist, columnist |
| Language | Bengali |
| Nationality | Bangladeshi |
| Citizenship | Bangladeshi |
| Education | MA (English) |
| Alma mater | University of Dhaka |
| Genre | modernist |
| Notable awards |
Ekushey Padak Bangla Academy Award |
Shamsur Rahman (Bengali: শামসুর রাহমান Shamsur Rŭhman; 23 October 1929 – 17 August 2006) was a Bangladeshi poet, columnist and journalist. Rahman, who emerged in the latter half of the 20th century, wrote more than sixty books of poetry and is considered a key figure in Bengali literature. He was regarded as the unofficial poet laureate of Bangladesh. Major themes in his poetry and writings include liberal humanism, human relations, romanticised rebellion of youth, the emergence of and consequent events in Bangladesh, and opposition to religious fundamentalism.
Shamsur Rahman was born in his grandfather's house 46 no. Mahut-Tuli, Dhaka. His paternal home is situated on the bank of the river Meghna, a village named Pahartoli, near the Raipura thana of Narshingdi district. He was the fourth of thirteen children. He studied at Pogos High School from where he passed matriculation in 1945. Later he took his I.A. as a student of the Dhaka College. Shamsur Rahman started writing poetry at the age of eighteen, just after graduating from the Dhaka College. He studied English literature at the Dhaka University for three years but did not take the examination. After a break of three years he got admitted to the B.A. pass course and received his BA in 1953. He also received his MA in the same subject where he stood second in second division.
In his leisure after the matriculation, he read the Golpo Guccho of Rabindranath Tagore. He told that this book took him into the extra ordinary world and transformed him into an altogether different personality. In 1949, his poem Unissho Unoponchash was published in Sonar Bangla which was then edited by Nalinikishor Guho.
He had a long career as a journalist and served as the editor of a national daily, Dainik Bangla and the weekly Bichitra in the 1980s. A shy person by nature, he became an outspoken liberal intellectual in the 1990s against religious fundamentalism and reactionary nationalism in Bangladesh. As a consequence, he became a frequent target of the politically conservative as well as Islamists of the country. This culminated in the January 1999 attack on his life by the militant Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami. He survived the attempt.
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