“The poet approaches us vividly presenting some catching-images and those images draw our attention.”

NO MAJOR SPOILERS

There always lies a subject matter in the poem about the perception of beauty. It can be captured or delineated mainly in the beauty described in the poem, in the expression of the poem, on the ability to provide pleasure, or on the combination of deliberateness. With the touch of a rash conception of thought, for whatever pleasure or beauty it creates, the poet slowly becomes more and more visible through his poetry pulling everything around him. The poet breaks down the walls of some illusions that surround him. Maybe some more impenetrable walls are created in the meantime.

The book “Faux Assassin” is written by one of the most prominent Bangladeshi poets, storytellers, essayists, and translators “Obayed Akash”. The anthology has included forty-six excellent poems wherein we shall torch on the third poem at first:

Natural Truth
The whole poem is fully covered with deep feelings and affections of the poet to his heavenly mother. Here, in the third stanza, the poet seems to be a little bit touching on the way to expose his grievances. A suppressed feeling as well as inner lamentation is prevalent here. The poet is in the bewailing-mood and at the same time, he is also in the revering-mood while hiring two important flower-tools: “Patabahar” and “Shefali” to convey the deepest respect to his mother. The concluding stanza discernably turns the whole poem into a universal poem where love, affection and respect keep abreast of and ultimately reveals the punch line of the poem i.e. natural truth.

The poet will form beautiful sentences by translating the thoughts of his mind one by one. The feeble and exhausted emotions will be strengthened by fresh thoughts. If there is disruption in the demand, the poet feels intense resonance, the poet becomes overwhelmed. And on the contrary, if the poet can translate his thoughts exactly, then it becomes a heavenly gift for the poet and ultimately for the readers too.
Let’s read a few lines from the poem “Utterance” wherein the poet is a little bit skeptical about the future:

Utterance
It is only when the combined elements and metaphors of the poem are presented together then the true beauty of the poem emerges from the sublime, lining the reader’s mind. In the second poem of the book, the poet unveils his thought about greyish-future, being a bit disturbed and questioned, whether he has been able to execute his duty properly or not –

Child’s Face
In modern poetry, we see the impression of humanist consciousness that has been notably reflected in several poems in the book. The poet presents in front of us all the extraordinary scenes and images, enriched with the general content around him. That is the key “openness” to the poetry of Obayed Akash. We should go through the following poem “Postmodern Cat”. The first few verses of the poem give us an impression of rich figurative description of a-much-beloved-under-the-guise-of a lovely cat focussing the word “you” around which the infinite dream collapses —

Postmodern Cat
Modern poets create a special type of hyperreality that readers are to face while going through the poem but in this anthology, Obayed Akash didn’t try at all to test the readers’ patience rather he has portrayed his poems in a very frank and open way. This is the speciality of Obayed Akash’s poetry. We find the touch of reality in the last stanza of “Wallet (Money Bag)” as well as in the poem of “Blood Ancestry”. We see the touch of magnitude of the reality —

Blood-Ancestry
Does that mean the rest of the poems in the book are not touched by hyperreality? In fact, every poem in the book is full of practical issues around us. In the thirty-fifth poem “The Rack”, we find the fragrance of love in a little bit different way through the reflection of common furniture. Stealing the poet’s faith or confidence in the middle of the darkness is not good:

The Rack
There is always a lack of centrality in reading the modern poetry. Finding where to start or where to end is often difficult for the reader. It is important to note that readers will not lack the centrality of modern poetry while going through the book “Faux Assassin”. Besides, it is good to say that the simplicity and fluidity of the language have made the whole anthology unique and distinctive. After reading these poems, we shall be of the opinion that all these poems represent extraordinary descriptions of all the ordinary forms prevailing around us.

Without questioning the poet alone, or extending our discussion a bit further, we can also quote here the style and diction from his previously published book “Weal and Woe of Pronoun”, which has also posed a question to us – Did the poet avoid postmodernism or postmodern-trend in his poems sophisticatedly? Did the poet ignore this trend intentionally through his poetic prowess or artistry?

Let’s try to understand it. Theoretically the poet does not really want to chase the readers in the complexities of the post-modern era rather he has tried his best to ensure that, while going through his poetry, an utmost satisfaction can deeply engross the readers’ mind. Sometimes in reading the book it seems that the poems have reflected the readers’ own thoughts. In this situation, the readers will undoubtedly extend their best wishes and congratulations to the poet Akash. Let’s read a beautiful poem and try to have nostalgia with the touch of nature —

The Tamarisk Evening
In the eighteenth poem of the book, “Belonged to Sangita” the poet has usually presented to us the reflection of his one-time thoughts, as well as through the last verse, an example of the opposite of Platonic love —

Belonged to Sangita
Except for a couple of poems in the book “Faux Assassin”, almost every poem is a description of contemporary issue. As avid readers of the poem, we understand each poem has a specific focus and subject-matter. The poet has collected his poetic materials from almost all-walks-of-life. The hierarchy of logic is present in almost all the poems. The first verse of forty-fourth poem “Poem for Well-Being” opens the presence of tailor shop through the “natural physique of the girl’s body”. At this stage with the poet, we all say in tune, that we can all be well. Let’s read the poem —

Poem for Well-Being
The modern poet creates his own world through his imagination; he may have similarities with other worlds or may not even have them. He finds inspiration from contemporary subjects. In Akash’s poetry, the readers find all the thoughts of reality, love, daily-mythology, some abstract feeling, realism, sufferings, romance of daily affairs and absolutely the presence of nature. A portion of them is covered with abstract atmosphere. All these poems describe the poet, all the marginal professionals, lovers, labours, clowns as well as intellectuals in a very expressionistic and realistic way.

So after reading the poems “False Assailant” or “Faux Assassin”, written in his own charismatic language, in his own way, we breathe a sigh of relief by completely liberating the poet “Obayed Akash” from the barrage of illusion.

Faux Assassin
The poet approaches us vividly presenting some catching-images and those images draw our attention. The words and phrases used in the above poems: the churned-out-wet-face, the skeleton of cloud, the brink of death, promise-bound, the grave wreckage, to hide yourself from the recurring ruins madness, etc lead to a conclusion – Which, in the last line of the poem, make an invisible excitement in front of the readers’ eyes. We shall conclude going through the poem “Flute” so, let’s flute —

Flute
All the poems of “Faux Assassin” have well and aesthetically been translated from Bengali by five renowned and respected poets, writers and translators of Bangladesh namely – Ashoke Kar, Haikal Hashmi, Mahfuz Al-Hossain, Kamrul Hasan and Razia Sultana. They will definitely be praised by the readers for completing their task.

 

Reviewed by:

Ashraful Kabir

Added 21st May 2020