” World Poetry Day “celebrated with Bengali-Romanian poetry by IAAPS at RKMIC
By : PARTHA ROY
” World Poetry Day ” celebrates one of humanity’s most treasured forms of cultural and linguistic expression and identity which is observed on 21st March around the world and established by UNESCO ( United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) .
“Practiced throughout history – in every culture and on every continent – poetry speaks to our common humanity and our shared values, transforming the simplest of poems into a powerful catalyst for dialogue and peace.”says UNESCO
This year theme of the world poetry day was ‘Standing on the shoulders of giants’ with a clear objective to get connected with poets of the past whose refined measured thoughts and feelings widened the scope of human vision.
The poetry of noble laureate Rabindranath Tagore of India and Mihai Eminescu, the national poet of Romania was read and celebrated at a program titled “Poetry Beyond Borders” at Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Kolkata (RKMIC) .
Indian Association for Asian and Pacific Studies (IAAPS) in association with Bratati Parampara, the organization founded by acclaimed multi-lingual elocutionist of Bengal Bratati Bandyopadhyay, organised the World Poetry Day with a multilingual poetry reading session . This is for the first time an evening was observed with poems of Romanian and Bengali poets. In Kolkata Carmen Musat Coman, a writer and journalist from Romania, read Eminescu in Romanian while Srabanti Basu read the Bengali translations by Amita Bhose. Mini Joseph read English translations done by Croneliu Popescu. Srabanti Basu along with Shubhayan Chakraborty recited originals works of Tagore with similar themes and philosophy of the selected works by Eminescu.
Professor Dr Lipi Ghosh, President of IAAPS and former Director of WSRC of Calcutta University, and Carmen Coman discussed the trend of practice of Bengali culture and literature in Bucharest University of Romania. It was Amita Bhose who introduced an optional course in Bengali in Bucharest University. She dedicated her life to study Eminescu and Tagore. Carmen is one of the international scholar who is now carrying out Amita Bhose’s work in her own way. Carmen Coman playing important role in fostering India-Romania cultural understanding and building goodwill between two cultures and nations .
The evening started with a recitation of Eminescu’s poem in English translation by Bratati Bandyopadhyay.
Carmen Coman visited Sri Aurobindo Bhavan in Kolkata and paid homage to the great Yogi and poet of India.
