Why Al Mahmud is a poet with difference

The entrance of Al Mahmud into Bangla poetry, the poetic domain of Dhaka to be precise, was not smooth. The aspiring poet, who arrived in Dhaka as a post-adolescent youth in 1954, had to face a lot of hurdles during his budding times. Besides apathy from a section of his powerful contemporary poets, he had also to endure humiliating treatment from poets and critics of mediocre calibre. In reality, he was not warmly greeted into the poetic world of Bangladesh, then East Pakistan. It was nearly a decade later that he was capable of drawing attention of the readers and fellow poets. He arrived in Dhaka from Brahmanbaria, his ancestral home. By the mid-1960s, he became a poet with distinctive temperament and diction. With his maiden collection of poems 'Loke Lokantor', Al Mahmud could carve out a distinctive place in Dhaka-based Bangla poetry.

As his reputation as a gifted poet continued to grow, the episodes of Al Mahmud's bitter formative days kept fading out from the memories of many. A few incidents, however, deserve a lasting place in the poetic circles. One such occurrence has the poet sitting on a chair, embarrassed and bewildered, at a literary session in Dhaka. This state of the poet followed a barrage of criticism let loose on him by a celebrated writer of the time. What irked the learned litterateur was the generous use of rural dialects by the poet in his poems. The poet was also termed 'unsophisticated', 'rustic' and 'not suitable' for a place in Dhaka's poetic community. In fact, Al Mahmud entered the poetry of Dhaka with potential for shock, and a few elements not encountered before in Bangla poetry. Coming to the literary session belittling Al Mahmud, a major poet-in-the-making, a few protesting voices supporting Mahmud rose from different corners of the meet. An impassioned debate ensued. Finally, the combined backing to Al Mahmud by the younger poets prevailed. It amply proved the still untapped poetic strength with which Al Mahmud was making inroads into Dhaka's poetic domain. Unlike many of his contemporaries in the 1950s, Mahmud had a dramatic start. His first collection of poetry came out thanks to the collective efforts taken by a few poets younger than him.

The purely rural background from which Al Mahmud emerged as a poet kept his work apart from most of his contemporaries. He, however, had yet to develop his characteristic rural content, and use his unique style of expression. On the other hand, due to his raw warmth and friendly nature he was able to make friends with a lot of his fellow poets. Among others, Shamsur Rahman became his closest friend. Yet he could not shed his awkwardness altogether. He would hesitate to participate in the literary sessions of 'Saugat' organised regularly by the legendary editor Nasir Uddin, or the tea-stall 'addas', with the ease and comfort of others. But it did not take longer for the poet to expand his friend circles. Beginning from the then young poets Shamsur Rahman, Shaheed Quaderi, Alauddin Al Azad to Syed Shamsul Haque, he discovered admiring attitudes in almost all the poets and critics of the period. Fresh from village with a single ambition -- becoming a poet, Mahmud did not have plans to pursue studies at college or university. Instead, he landed a job of proof reading, a profession which he continued for a considerably longer time. His first-ever employment was that of a proof reader at the Daily Millat. Throughout the whole decade of the 1950s, Al Mahmud published his poems mostly in renowned weeklies. However, he did not have to wait longer before being discovered by the poet-editor Sikandar Abu Zafar in the later part of the decade. After the publication of his first poem for 'Samakal', Al Mahmud became a regular contributor to Zafar's journal. In those days, publishing literary pieces in 'Samakal' or 'Ogottya' (edited by Fazle Lohani), was synonymous with getting recognition of the literary institutions. With his fame as poet spreading unabated, Al Mahmud had been briefly picked by the vernacular weekly 'Kafela' as its editor in 1955. Two and half decades later, the poet served as an official at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, after a tumultuous stint with Daily Gonokontho as its editor.  He went into retirement from the Shilpakala job.

Unlike many of his contemporaries, Al Mahmud's starting phase as a poet was featured by many a dramatic turn. These unforeseen developments characterised his career as an author throughout his life. Ranging from his literature-centred self, professional ups and downs to ideological shifts, Mahmud continued to go through phases often starkly different from each other. Few could imagine that the poet in a decade after his poetic debut in the city would eventually emerge as one passionately focused on the rural life in riverine Bangladesh. In fact, it was Jasim Uddin who first excelled in depicting the minute details of the village life in Bangladesh. Broadly speaking, Al Mahmud showed that dealing with the village and its inhabitants was his forte. But what kept him apart from Jasim Uddin was his modern style of expression. In order to express his deep feelings about the rural folks, especially women, he developed a new language -- simple and down-to-earth and filled with centuries-old eastern Bengal dialects. His two illustrious contemporaries Shamsur Rahman and Shaheed Quaderi were purely urban. They were born and brought up in cities. As a corollary, their poems from the very beginning remained steeped in urban realities. Another of their fellow poets -- Syed Shamsul Haque, despite having strong rural roots, came to Dhaka in the late 1940s. But he preferred a broader poetic landscape obliterating the rural-urban divide. That his would be a different path, notwithstanding his occasional picking up of rural themes, was noticed in one of his two very early poems. The poem published in Buddhadeb Bose's 'Kabita' in 1954 was titled 'Yazdani Mara Gechhe Biman Potoney' (Yazdani Died in a Plane Crash). It was natural that the poem stood out strikingly among the mostly romance-soaked writings which were in vogue in those days.

As his poetry matured, the rural roots in Mahmud's poetry kept becoming pervasive. He demonstrated his delicate and deft dealing with rural landscape, love-bitten women being a constant presence, mainly in his first three collections of poetry. They are 'Loke Lokantor' (1963), 'Kaler Kolosh' (1966) and 'Sonali Kabin' (1973). The theme recurs in his other books as well. They include 'Mayabi Porda Duley Otho' (1976), 'Odrishtobadider Rannabanna', 'Prem O Bhalobashar Kabita', 'Nodir Bhitorer Nodi' etc. At one point of his career, the poet proved his skill in writing short stories. Al Mahmud's 'Pankourir Rokto', is acclaimed as one of the most outstanding short story collections in Bangla literature. The poet published his autobiography at the middle stage of his career. Thanks to his unconventional and eventful life till then, the book, called 'Jebhabe Bere Uthi', won instant readers' approval. Mahmud also has a number of juvenile books, including rhymes, which proves his multi-faceted literary genius.

Al Mahmud's poetic form and expression had been different from Shamsur Rahman or Shaheed Quaderi from the very beginning. Upon an in-depth look at the poetic landscape of Dhaka in the 1950s, Al  Mahmud is found all along preferring a crisp and pithy poetic style. Perhaps due to this, he nurtured a special preference for Matrabritto and Swarabritto metres. These two metres are considered ideal for lyrical and romantic expressions, in which the expertise of Al Mahmud is beyond all disputes. Owing to chiefly being akin to the temperament of Jibanananda Das, Shamsur Rahman loved to remain attached to socio-aesthetic realities unfolding around him. In giving vent to feelings born of these realities, Rahman chose the Akshorbritto metre. The fact also applies to Shaheed Quaderi, and, to some extent, Syed Shamsul Haque.

Like with Al Mahmud's Matrabritto embracing romance, Shamsur Rahman wrote both love-based and socio-political poetry in Akshorbritto metre. This has enabled Rahman to adopt a form which is typically his own. Al Mahmud was also not detached from realities. But his expression was different. It's a poet's typical sensibility that defines his or her way of expressing their inner feelings. That Al Mahmud's poems written during the anti-dictatorship movement in the 1960s could cut deep into the readers' psyche points to one reason: his love for the consummate nature of poetry. It cannot be achieved without choosing the right form and content.

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