The Poet or The Condemned Eunuch
by Humayun Azad
What does the life of a modern poet look like? What dream, imagination, emotion or malaise give him the fuel to live, give him the taste of dark death? How much is he related, or not related, to life? Is life a clichéd dirty clothing to him which can be donated to his servant easily? Is it better not to be born or to die in the very first age of life? How much is a modern poet man, or eunuch? How much is he sentenced? After passing boyhood, the main protagonist of the book, Hasan Rashid, a young poet, goes ahead to poetry. He rejects an average mediocre life and chooses the impossible life of art. Beauty, continuous stir and nectar-like poison are always here. The violent antagonistic life of art takes extreme revenge on Hasan Rashid and makes him a eunuch. At last, Hasan yields to a life which is more tragic than death and more woeful than tragedy. Himself a poet, Humayun Azad explores the inner and outer object of the life of a modern poet. The Poet or the Condemned Eunuch is at the same time a poem and novel of unparalleled anguish. Novels with the name of poet are aplenty in Bengali language, but one on a real poet was very rare before this novel of Azad.
