THE marketing of products of national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam at local, global and other levels, based on short-, medium- and long-term perspectives would require inter alia as to how best and quickest critical mass of worldwide constituencies of Poet Nazrul’s work could be developed, sustained and promoted with support of, and assistance from: one, communities of at least major languages such as Bangla, English, Hindi, Urdu, French, German, Chinese and Arabic; two, existing and evolving ICT opportunities; three, outcomes of quality research and development and community of practice in domains of Nazrul’s work; four, popular ownership of Nazrul and his work through generation friendly Nazrul-civilisation and civilisation-Nazrul synergies at conceptual, operation, DNA transfer, and other levels; and five, respect for Nazrul and motivation for promotion of Nazrul’s work; to mention a few.
For ‘sustainable livelihoods’ of Nazrul and his contributions at local, global and other levels, a purposeful balance should be established between Nazrul + work of his time and Nazrul + work in the context of changing time in pursuits of narrowing down generational gaps in pertinent areas, enabling people of a variety of generations to relate themselves to Nazrul and his work easily and in say an ownership-friendly manner.
Let the word Bhang remain Bhang while translating pertinent Nazrul’s work from say Bangla into English and vice versa with a note or footnote containing modern English translation of Bhang. I believe we are at present and will be in future required to market Nazrul’s work with affordable and acceptable fringe area adjustments in terms of say mechanics of presentation, as needed though, brightening prospects for reinventing Nazrul by all concerned through passage of time. By the way, does the time really exist? Make Nazrul a family friend.
Dr MS Haq
Former government adviser
Office of the Prime Minister, Fiji