Professor Kaiser Haq’s seminar on Hassan Shaheed Suhrawardy: (held in R 401, Campus A)

The third seminar, titled “Resurrecting the first modern English poet of the subcontinent: Hassan Shaheed Suhrawardy” was an exploratory presentation by Professor Kaiser Haq, eminent poet, editor, and translator, and now a full time ULAB faculty, who sought to rediscover the first ever modern poet in this subcontinent. Hassan Shaheed Suhrawardy, who in his early days traveled across Europe and imbibed modernist influences in his poetry, was a member of a noble Muslim family of Bengal, and studied in Presidency College, Kolkata, and then pursued his studies in several universities of Europe, including Oxford and Cambridge University. He then came in close contact with the masters and scholars of modern art and poetry, of the likes of T.S. Eliot, Baudelaire, Mallarme, etc. Professor Haq said, Hassan was influenced by the symbolist movement in the early 20th century France, while he studied at Sorbonne for a year. He was a multifaceted genius in that he pursued his scholastic studies in literature, philosophy and art criticism, translation and theatre. He taught at the Visvavarati University as professor of fine arts. His early poetry, a group of rhythmic lyrics adorned with nature images, was inspired by the 19^th-century Romanticism, but as he came into contact with the early 20^th-century modernist and symbolist artists and poets his verse grew more mature and nuanced, though, at times, abstract. Unfortunately his mind lost the poetic certitude at the partitioning of Bengal, and his knack for composing poetry slackened and he became overshadowed as a poet. Professor Haq’s presentation, sprinkled with his usual sense of humor, created profound interest amongst the audience, comprising DEH faculty and students, about a poet gone to oblivion. The session was followed by a question-answer session which further substantiated the idea that a poet can never be lost, but s/he reemerges at this or that point of time.