On Behula’s Raft: Selected Poems

Khondakar Ashraf Hossain is perhaps the finest poetic voice to have come out of Bangladesh since it won independence in 1971. This volume contains poems that cover a period of creativity extending over almost three decades. Ashraf Hossain’s poetry is deeply concerned with the celebration of his motherland, its myths and metonymies, its political and social exigencies. But he also traverses the grounds of existentialist philosophy and mysticism quite often, as he touches such timeless themes as life and death, time and eternity. In love poems he has combined passion and intellect, in quite a number of poems he has concerned himself with the conditions of womanhood, particularly in the backdrop of religious bigotry and persecution. Ashraf Hossain is at the same time prolific and profound, sombre and playful, scintillating and cerebral. But his language is lucid and lyrical; his voice is mellow and, often, mystifying. His insights into the human condition make him a serious poet worthy of the attention of the most discerning of readers.