Poetess from Bangladesh honoured

Dawn, Sunday 5 August 2001, 14 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1422

KARACHI, Aug 4: The Urdu department of the University of Karachi held a function on Saturday in the honour of poetess Mumtaz Reno Farookuz Zaman, who can write poetry in the Urdu, Bengali, Persian and English languages.

Speaking about the poetry of Ms Zaman, the head of the Urdu department, Dr Zafar Iqbal, said that her verses focussed on God, the universe and natural phenomena. He observed that she had written on greatness of the Creator in a different manner. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Pirzada Qasim said Ms Zaman had chosen to concentrate on monotheistic themes in her poetry.

Talking to Dawn earlier, Ms Zaman said her poetry contained three messages: truth, beauty, purity and divine touch of love of God. A graduate of Dhaka University, Bangladeshi-born Mumtaz Reno said in November 1992 she had had a vision wherein some inner voice had commanded her to compose poetry in seven languages.

Speaking in broken Urdu, Ms Zaman told Dawn that in April 1995 her anthology of Urdu poems, containing several Persian, Hindi and Sanskrit words, had come out which had been translated into English (Lamp Glows in Darkness). At the same time, a cassette of her poems, set to music and sung by her, had also been released.