What are the main essences of Kaiser Haque poetry?
In Bangladesh, there are few Bengali writers and poets who practice their literary works in English language. Among them Kaiser Haq, is said to be a leading south Asian poet who write poems in English on native context. Although the poet writes in the colonial language, his writings are capable of creating the image of the native culture in their own ways and a glimpse of them will be reflected in the paper. A number of poems in his book Published in the Streets of Dhaka are echoing Bangladeshi culture mostly on urban context.
Postcolonial effects are observed in Haq’s poetry in its representation of the native mostly the poet’s city- Dhaka and contexts, themes and subjects and use or presentation of the language like in the structure, translations and making words on his own shows how they blends with the native culture. The book Published in the Streets of Dhaka, presented in certain sections or volumes is quite resourceful in explaining the above aspects. According to Hummel, Published in the Streets of Dhaka: Collected Poems depicts Bangladesh as he knows and imagines it. His fondness in writing reflects his sense of belonging to Bangladesh, “even as he stand apart from it in an intriguing way –through language” (Hummel). Haq claims him to be a post-romantic poet who writes about the ordinary city-life in a thoughtful way. His poems mainly comprise the urban landscape as the poet argues that modern poetry is essentially based on the urban elements (Haq 7/4/14). A number of poems can be taken into consideration for establishing that Haq, although using English, his poems are not affected by any sort of internalizing the tongue as a necessity and rather they are questioning the western effects and influence in every contexts.
To discuss the well-captured native essence and variety of contexts, themes and subjects from Postcolonial perspective Haq’s “Ode On The Lungi” will be the best from the ‘New Poems’ section of the book. The poem is on a common eastern male attire lungi. The poet not only wanted to uphold a part of culture in this poem but also revolted against the discriminating attitude of the West towards the cloth. S. M. Hossain while writing on this poem claimed that it is the best example of a postcolonial response to the Western impact of cultural hegemony persevering sartorial inequality. It is an explanation of Haq’s cultural identity, undermining the colonial or imperial conventional legacy of social structures. Haq announces him as a Lungi Activist and with lungi he celebrated an uncelebrated subject not only with his countrymen but also the millions of South Asia.
The use of words in the language of the poet to visualize objects in front of the non-native readers shows to what extent he is successful in picturing the reality. Two of his poems, “Ode On the Lungi” and “Two Paradies: ms bunny sen” can be considered in this aspect. It is observed Haq used familiar and comprehensible terms like ‘fig leaf’, ‘G-string’, ‘poncho’ to explain different styles of wearing ‘lungi’. Although, the terms are very helpful in relating with ‘lungi’, the non-native reader who is not familiar with the attire in real can only conceptualize it. However, in the later poem it is observed that Haq introduced words on his own which interestingly reflects the reality. For instance, words like ‘godknowshowlong’ to expose the true essence of the impatient, hours-long traffic jam of Dhaka city. The skill of Haq’s English in capturing the urban landscape of the native along with cultural aspect in the verses is also observed by other researchers, Hossain found out “Spring in Dhaka” is a poem where the poet displays his cultural root and rituals as he mentions about about a common transport in Bangladesh –rickshaw: “the tantrums of richshaw bells become merry tinkle” (Hossain 67). Similarly, in the poem “Windows”, it is felt that any reader will visualize the night of Dhaka, where man is celebrating their mundane life in the concretes with their loved ones.
Another notable characteristic of Haq’s poems is use of words from other language, especially Bangla which is a sort of translation indeed. It is figured out that this multilinguistic aspect of the poems is actually helping the poet to get more close to his people and their life. It can explained by giving two examples of his poems “Durga Puja” and “Master Babu” where the titles are even translated in Bangla. In the former poem, the poet included words like banias, babus, mantras, shehnais, dhols to grab the true colors of a Bengali festival where there are no exact English for the terms and the poet could not have induce the actual flavor of the context using any of it. Again, if the latter is considered, a specific line can be taken into account to explain the same factor: “Partakes of a repast of rice and dal…Before an evening of private tuition”, in this line instead of dal the poet could have used directly the English term — pulse, but the pun he introduced here by using the Bangla could not have been done with the English. It is the ‘dull’ routine and food habit of a struggling teacher challenged by his daily life, a common image in both rural and urban realm of Bangladesh. In brief, the above observed and analyzed features of Kaiser Haq’s poetry including the uniqueness of the English can be claimed not to be affected by any colonialist thoughts and it is upholding the cultural reality of every phase of the native.
The students confirm that Haq’s poems are harmless mockery protesting against all odds and questioning the hybrid society. The objections they had are Haq’s use of lot of references in the verses and of creating something fully imaginative. However, all of them admitted that his poems have the true native essence. They affirms the parody of BonolotaSen to be a lively and amazing poem clearly depicting the city life of Dhaka, where one points out that Haq is actually worshipping the reality, mocking at the Petrarchan style. In the poem “A Myth Reworked”, students felt the native essence in the concretes of old Dhaka even if it depicts a Greek myth that of Icarus. Two teachers teaching Kaiser Haq’s poetry, one from a BRAC University of Dhaka and another from Govt. Tolaram Degree College of Narayanganj are interviewed to share their opinions regarding the poems and their experience teaching them. In postcolonial studies, the teachers find the issues of identity, nationhood etc. important to discuss about. According to MushiraHabib, faculty member of English Department in BRAC University, “I love reading and teaching his poems. My students have always appreciated the fact that they read poems by someone they could actually meet in person. They can relate to his poems better than the other poets they have to study in their courses”.
