Not long ago, using the word 'poetess', the feminine gender of 'poet', was very much in vogue in the sub-continent. The poetesses are long gone, but the female sensibilities, in some cases feminist activism, have made inroads.
No self-conscious and modern poet, if she is a female, would like to be called a poetess today. But there are many fully active poets everywhere in the world, who happen to be females. A handful of them are seriously engaged in the unique world of women. The others find themselves to be a part of the broader ambience in which they live.
Sadaf Saaz, in her debut poetic collection Sari Reams, amply proves that she is a consummate poet. Despite being a young woman, full of exuberance and youthful sensuousness, she is not confined to the typical docility of Bengalee feminism. Yet she has the eyes of a perfect woman of her times. Homebound. Loving. Yet venturesome. With those eyes she notices a life, which is eluded by most of men.
The feelings that Saaz portrays in her poems speak of an innocence, which is also interspersed with poignancy. It makes her 'a poet apart'. She says: "High on the idea,/That this place is mine/It's part of me/That this is the way it was meant to be/As I begin to see/The world as it is." (Among This All).
In another poem she takes a more in-depth look at herself:
"A feeling of surprise, disbelief and fear/Mixed blessings/Joy, hurt/Happiness and pain/Then it is gone again." (Something Within).
Saaz has an irresistible passion for expressing her mirth, inner emotions, melancholy, sarcastic observations, as well as outbursts of love in charged lyrics. Short lyrics occupy a major part in the collection of thirty-four poems. In the opening 12-line poem Hold Me Close, Saaz appears to have reached a higher level of ecstasy -- which borders on the mystical. In an intense ethereal state she says, "Draw me tight/As I fit your form/And we move together/The hypnotic rhythm/ That still drugs me/ Into your trance/And hours pass/As the moment lasts."
Sadaf Saaz's is a lucid, forthright poetic diction. She dislikes hyperboles and never gets carried away by emotional surges. Yet her evocative style of narrating things compensates for her apparent detachment from complex symbols and metaphors. In their place we discover in her poetry a rich world of images.
Saaz's ancestral land Bangladesh finds a stellar place in Sari Reams. The country, its nature and the people emerge with all their charms and beauty in many of her poems. Love for the motherland, the eagerness to get into its ethos, invocation of its eventful history, especially the 1971 Liberation War, the present realities and its many other aspects permeate her poems.
The poet grew up in the UK, studied Molecular Cell Biology at the University of Cambridge. The overseas childhood and the student career in a foreign land may have drawn her close to Bangladesh as she matured. A kind of repentance may have overtaken her. Maybe, Saaz has realised she should not be far from her home any more. The poet now lives in Dhaka.
What distinguishes Sadaf Saaz from many of the female poets of her generation writing in English is her longing to get to her roots. Everything Bengali has a special appeal to her. It is proven by her profuse use of local Bangla terms in italics in her poems.
However, the patriotic feelings of Sadaf Saaz ought not to be interpreted as any emotion-sodden poeticisation. She is out and out a modern poet.
At times abstraction and obliqueness in her poetry demand repeated readings.
The poet takes us to the twilight of a riddle when she chants, "Silence/Yes I give silence/To fortify my shrinking reason/And indulge your fantasies/To leave/A historical trail/A tale." (The Only Answer)
Her image-rich and impassioned tonality, and the penchant for the narrative, notwithstanding, Sadaf Saaz stands out with a wonderful collage of feelings, moods, impressions -- and, of course, dreams. What dominates her poetry is a commitment to celebration of life and love.
The poet has dedicated the collection of poems to the memory of her illustrious father Jamal Nazrul Islam.
shihabskr@ymail.com
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Sari Reams
(A collection of poems)
By Sadaf Saaz
Published by: The University Press Limited,
Dhaka, November 2013
Cover: Journeyman
58 pages, Tk 550.00, USD 18.00
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