Humanists of Bangladesh – A Poem from Bangladesh

One by one, they become homeless, stateless, exiled from their country, rusticated from society!

Tareq Samin

Tareq Samin is a famous Bangladeshi bilingual Poet-Writer and Editor of the bilingual literary journal Sahitto. He is author of seven books, including four poetry collections, two Short Stories collections and a Novel. Also he has translated into Bengali, two books of Anthology of International Poetry of 22 poets from 20 countries. In total he has nine books published. Some of his poems are translated in English, Spanish, Chinese, German, French, Greek, Italian, Russian, Turkish, Swedish, Finnish, Hebrew, Arabic, Vietnamese, Hindi, Nepalese, Portuguese, Estonian, Slovak, Romanian, Macedonian, Chinese, and Hungarian Languages. His poems, short Stories and articles are published in more than 25 countries. Tareq Samin received the ‘International Best Poets Award-2020’ from The International Poetry Translation and Research Centre (IPTRC), China and the Greek Academy of Arts and Letters. Also he has been awarded ‘Honorable Mention’ in Foreign Language Authors category for his poem ‘Another Try’ in ‘The prize il Meleto di Guido Gozzano Agliè’ poetry competition held on 12 September 2020 in Turin, Italy. Also he is a nominated guest writer in Geneva, Switzerland. He is an important voice in the literary world working against violence and extremism and in favor of human rights, peace and free speech. Nature, Love and Humanism are central to his work.

Humanists of Bangladesh

One by one

They become homeless, stateless

Exiled from their country

Rusticated from society!

Some of their name is democracy,

Someone is human rights, or free-speech.

Democracy had left the country after the Independence

From 1991 to 2001 these ten years he had come

With some conditions in this country,

On his back, still then the burning blister of military despotism.

Freedom of speech

In an illegal way

Sometimes crosses the border.

Sometimes he is caught by the fanatic Islamist terrorist

Or sometimes in the hands of the police

They all wanted to cut his hands

And also the tongue

And also to pluck out the eyes!

Rule of Law is suffering from

Malnutrition

His physique is like living dead body specter thin

He is the refugee of the no man’s land

Occasionally, Aid Agencies

Send food for him.

‘Human rights’ is remaining so well.

Sometimes he comes in the country at the invitation of

The N.G.O’s and International Aid Agencies

By staying at five star hotel, in a VIP Protocol

In the provision of limousine and police patrolling

He has seen the so-called developments of this country.

Poverty, rising of terrorism, less jurisprudence,

Endless corruption

These are as if the imaginary composition

Of the writers;

They all listen and smile mildly.

Once again I am saying,

One by one

They are homeless, stateless

Exiled from their country

Rusticated from society!

Their names are Democracy, Human Rights, Freedom of speech, Rule of law and Secularism.

All of them have forsaken

Their native land in fear

Sometimes the Jihadist Mullahs, sometimes the Autocratic Government,

Sometimes the extremist opponent parties

They claimed that in a ninety percent Muslim majority country

We should not live at all.

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