Ahmed Saadi: Bangladesh's Urdu poet

Ahmed Saadi, the Bengali-loving Urdu poet of Bangladesh, dreamed of disseminating knowledge of Bengali literature to the vast Urdu-speaking community of the subcontinent. He translated in Urdu selected poems of Kazi Nazrul Islam as well as novels, stories and poems of other famous Bengali litterateurs besides coming forth with his own Urdu literary works. Nazrul Institute compiled and published a book on Saadi's Urdu translated selected poems of Kazi Nazrul Islam. But after his death his remaining literary works appear to have gone into oblivion. This has prompted the leading lights of Bangla-Urdu Shahittyo Forum to urge the government to save his literarty works from being lost.
Poet Asad Chowdhury, a renowned literary figure and also the president of Bangla -Urdu Shahittyo Forum, recently told this correspondent that Ahmed Saadi, who died in 2003, had desired to present the richness of Bengali literature to the international community through his Urdu translations of Bengali literary works. But unfortunately we know little about this true friend of our literature, he lamented.
Chowdhury called upon the government to collect and compile Saadi's Urdu translations of literary works. He also stressed a preservation of Saadi's own works as well as those of other Urdu poets.
Born in 1923, Ahmed Saadi lived in Saidpur of Nilphamari district and completed his graduation from Kolkata. Saadi's greatest contribution to Bengali literature is that he translated selected poems of Kazi Nazrul Islam into Urdu. These include Bidrohi (in Urdu it is Baghi), Madhya Rater Bedona (Aadhi Rat Ki Dard), Chol Chol Chol (Chal Chal Chal), Sagar Parer Meye (Daria Paar ki Larki), Bhorer Gaan (Sube Ki Nagma) and others.
Nazrul Institute of Dhaka compiled Saadi's Urdu translated poems of Kazi Nazrul Islam in Urdu entitled Kazi Nazrul Islam Ki Muntakhab Nazme O Geet (Poems and Songs of Kazi Nazrul Islam) in 2006.
Nasiruddin Fahmi, an Urdu poet living in Saidpur, notes that Ahmed Saadi translated into Urdu the seminal Manik Bandopadhay novel Ek Raat for serial publication in the then Urdu weekly Nizam, published from Mumbai, as far back as 1945.
Asad Chowdhury revealed that Saadi had also translated in Urdu the literary works of Bangladesh's leading contemporary poets and writers such as Alauddin al Azad, Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury, Fazal Shahabuddin, Shawkat Osman and Syed Shamsul Huq. Asad Chowdhury dedicated his novel Chhotto Rajputtro to Ahmed Saadi along with Prof Kabir Chowdhury in the early 1980s.
Saadi's family sources revealed that he also translated both volumes of Bimol Mitra's famous novel Kori Diye Kinlam in the mid 1960s. The Urdu title is Kouri Ke Mol. They lamented that many of his literary works were lost at the time of the War of Liberation.
Saadi's own fiction comes through his Mitti Ki Khushbu and Dude Cheragh Mehfil. His plays Sirajuddoula and Tipu Sultan earned much acclaim.
Ahmed Saadi, in his capacity as president of Manzil-e-Adab, an organization of Bangladeshi Urdu poets and writers, had close association with many notable Bangladeshi poets. He also maintained literary links with renowned Indian and Pakistani Urdu poets, namely, Nishatul Iman, Masum Sharki, Jagannath Azad, Foyez Ahmed, Ahmed Seraj, Nadim Kadmi and others.
Urdu poet Ashraful Islam Babu (Sagar) of Saidpur, general secretary of the central committee of Bangla-Urdu Shahittya Forum, is of the view that the authorities should accord due honour to Ahmad Saadi for his contribution to Bengali literature as he has played a significant role in widening its sphere.

EAM Asaduzzaman is Nilphamari correspondent of the Daily Star.