Rezauddin Stalin is a well-known poet in Bangladesh and beyond and is born on 22nd November 1962 in Jessore, Bangladesh. He has done his Bachelor's degree in Economics and MA in Political Science from Dhaka University. He is the former Deputy Director of Nazrul Institute where he was employed for 35 years. Stalin’s poems got translated into most languages in the world and he is also a well-known TV anchor and media personality in Bangladesh. Stalin is the founder and chairman of the Performing Art Center and is
also the senior editor of Magic Lonthon - a literary organization.
Rezauddin Stalin’s total number of books are more than 100 now and his Wikipedia link is: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rezauddin_Stalin
He has received many awards and some accolades are:
Darjeeling Natto Chokhro Award India (1985), Bangla Academy (2006), Micheal Modhushudhan Dutta Award (2009), Shobho Shachi Award West Bengal (2011), Torongo of California Award USA(2012), Writers club Award California USA (2012), Badam Cultural Award California USA (2012), City Ananda Alo Award(2015), West Bengal, India, Centre Stage Barashat Award (2018), Journalist Association Award UK (2018) and Silk Road Poet Laureate Award Xi’an China (2020).
His Social Media links are:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rezauddin22stalin
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RezauddinStalin
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rezauddinstalin/
HERCULES
Rezauddin Stalin
Evening has not yet descended
into any woodcutter's cabin anywhere.
Whose thirsty eyes scan the bokul-strewn path
filling the distant void with laments of infinitude.
The heart’s past pains wait beneath the horizon.
The vermilion of sunset gleams across the hair-parting
of the street.
The dust off cattle-hooves is flying in the wind
that heaves with a crimson glow.
A millennium has slid down the slope of someone’s Cheek.
Will he not come here again in the amazement of waiting?
Arjun’s arrow has returned to the love chamber.
The milky way has come down into the eyes of Indrajit.
Shandev has come and again held Droupadi in an embracc.
Daedalus has again faced Zeus.
Hercules, where are you looking for the source of yor power?
Hera’s ferocious claws have brought on the night.
Somewhere the beloved is alone grappling with death.
The show of power is drowned in fire and ice.
Hold the lightning rod in your hand quick, Hercules,
Zeus’ favourite eagle has pierced the heart of Prometheus.
O Prometheus, son of Fire,
tear off the chain with your deadly prowess,
let your roar resound everywhere in the earth and sky
like an all-submerging deluge.
Lift Africa out of Europe
climb the stairs up the realm of Zeus
drink the health distilled from the bodies
of a million stars.
The beloved has made a milky way
in the vermilion of her hair-parting.
Come down Hercules
with Love and Revenge in your hands.
POWERS OF THE POET
Rezauddin Stalin
Poets alone can renounce the golden throne.
None equals the poet in choosing a simple life
in contemptuous rejection of celebrity and greed.
Poets alone sever themselves
from the easily gotten wealth and couches of comfort
and come out into the streets
and take pride in leading a life of gay abandon
like those creatures of the sea - the whales.
Unlettered Plato was jealous of poets.
He knew that poets alone could overturn
the essence of his philosophy.
Poets alone at times release into the sky
the painted birds on placards
equally sharing the pride of the Creator.
And when it comes to going into exile
the poets go into exile spontaneously
of their own accord, alone
no royal edict can pronounce any sentence
on them.
Just the other day Lorca in a blaze of glory
surmounted death and left an example for civilization.
Firdausi threw away disdainfully on the Shah’s face
the gold coins of compassion
and Heracles before going to heaven
blinded the white eagle of Zeus.
The irrepressible Nazrul from sheer hatred of subjugation
accepted his exile into the state of befuddlement.?
Poets do not gnaw into the heart of the earth
with the teeth of examples
they leave a new example in the world
everyday with every sunrise
and with service and dedication fill up
man’s unwritten white pages.