Shamsur Rahman

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/19/ob.../19rahman.html


August 19, 2006

Shamsur Rahman, Bangladeshi Poet, Dies

By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Shamsur Rahman, a prominent Bangladeshi poet, journalist and human rights advocate who in 1999 survived an attempt on his life by an Islamic fundamentalist group, died in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Thursday. He was in his late 70’s.
The cause was heart and kidney failure, his family told The Associated Press. Mr. Rahman, who had been in declining health for some time, had been in a coma for the last 12 days.
The unofficial poet laureate of Bangladesh, Mr. Rahman was among the country’s most important political poets during its independence movement in the early 1970’s. (Amid brutal fighting, Bangladesh proclaimed its independence from Pakistan in 1971.) Mr. Rahman wrote in Bengali and helped adapt the language to modern poetic forms.
Mr. Rahman published more than 60 volumes of poetry, only a few of which have been translated into English. These include “The Best Poems of Shamsur Rahman,” published last year in New Delhi; and “The Devotee, the Combatant: Selected Poems of Shamsur Rahman,” published in 2000 in Dhaka.
Shamsur Rahman was born in Dhaka in the late 1920’s. He graduated from Dhaka University with a degree in English literature. For many years he edited the state-run daily newspaper, Dainik Bangla.
An outspoken opponent of religious fundamentalism, Mr. Rahman was attacked in January 1999 by a group of young men who talked their way into his house and tried to behead him with an ax. Mr. Rahman was unharmed, but his wife, who came to his aid, was seriously wounded.
Hearing screams, neighbors rushed in and caught the attackers, who were members of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, a militant Islamic group. The attack led to the arrest of 44 members of the group.
Information on Mr. Rahman’s survivors was not immediately available.