Love Poems of Taslima Nasreen

by Taslima Nasrin, Taslima Nasreen, Ashim Chowdhury (Editor)

Poetry by an internationally known activist, the author of Shame. Her autobiography has been banned by the West Bengal autobiography. Includes a few paintings by Tagore. trans. by Ashim Chowdhury.

Genres: Poetry

60 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Taslima Nasrin (Bengali: তসলিমা নাসরিন) is an award-winning Bangladeshi writer, physician, secular humanist and human rights activist, known for her powerful writings on women oppression and unflinching criticism of religion, despite forced exile and multiple fatwas calling for her death. Early in her literary career, she wrote mainly poetry, and published half a dozen collections of poetry between 1982 and 1993, often with female oppression as a theme. She started publishing prose in the early 1990s, and produced three collections of essays and four novels before the publication of her 1993 novel Lajja (Bengali: লজ্জা Lôjja), or Shame. Because of her thoughts and ideas she has been banned, blacklisted and banished from Bengal, both from Bangladesh and West Bengal part of India. Since fleeing Bangladesh in 1994, she has lived in many countries, and lives in United States as of July 2016. Nasrin has written 40 books in Bengali, which includes poetry, essays, novels and autobiography series. Her works have been translated in thirty different languages. Some of her books are banned in Bangladesh.'

Reviews

[Riya Joshi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some poems deeply touched me but there were many that I would have liked as a teenager but not as an adult. I was expecting much more out of this book, but maybe the author’s vantage point is different than mine. Nonetheless, there are some extremely beautiful poems I am taking away with myself and not to forget many marvellous portraits too.

[Samyak Mishra · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixture of good average and bad. Quite a couple of poems might not make sense to you if you dont belong to the sub continental part of the globe. Rhyming wasn't seen throughout the book and words used were satisfactory. Just a average collecton of poems don't stick much hopes with it, although there are some good and intresting pieces of writing every once a while😊😊👍👍✌✌

[Enakshi · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to give poetry a rating, but 4/5 stars.

Most of these poems did not radiate with me, and it's not because they're bad, but sometimes shared experiences amplify a poem's tune to the reader. There are a few lines that did resonate with me from each. Here's an example from the one called I never adjured you:

Love isn't a mere word,
love is being involved-sacrifice
...
I never adjured you that you must love me.
Don't love me. A thousand people don't love me.
Have I died because of that?

[Jayant Kashyap · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is bad writing—or, at the very least, bad translation—at best.