Masudul Hoc

Masudul Hoc

Masudul Hoq (1968) has a PhD in Aesthetics under Professor Hayat Mamud at Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is a contemporary Bengali poet, short story writer, translator and researcher. His previous published work includes short stories Tamakbari (1999), The poems Dhonimoy Palok (2000), Dhadhashil Chaya which translated version is Shadow of Illusion (2005) and Jonmandher Swapna which translated version is Blind Man’s Dream (2010), translated by Kelly J. Copeland.

Masudul Hoq also translated T.S. Eliot’s poem, Four Quartets (2012), Allen Ginsburg’s poem, Howl (2018), from English to Bengali. In the late 1990’s for 3 years he worked under a research fellowship at The Bangla Academy. Bangla Academy has published his two research books. His poems have been published in Chinese, Romanian, Mandarin, Azarbaijanese, Italian, Russian, Turkish, Nepali and Spanish languages. At present he is a Professor of Philosophy in a government college, Bangladesh.

 
Kalash face

House, made with pebbles; The blue sky
In the green-grey hills
Kalash women harvest crops

Women’s blue eyes, golden hair
Goes to fetch water at the bottom of the fountain
Reflected face floats on the water.

Water trickling faces
Takes them back
In ancient Macedonia

Ships sink in the sea
Boats sink in the river
Alexander’s army who were died
These faces were their wives and daughters!

 
Letter from Macedonia

I came to the cornfield telling the golden-haired girl,
stories of clouds and mud that I heard-
Those who came with Alexander to Hindu Kush

Around the color of grass flowers and rose balsam
Among the mountains and blue
The face of the girl is full of charm.

The girl wears a feather on her crown
Collects Apples in the garden, corn from the fields

That girl has given me a blue envelope last night
Both of us lost in the bay leaf forest,

Clouds, seen in the distant sky, leaves flow towards Bangladesh,
       pair by pair
The girl’s ancestors came from Macedonia!

 
Poetry in this post: © Masudul Hoc
Published with the permission of Masudul Hoc