The languages that are ours
Harun ur Rashid is happy to share thoughts on a work
Twenty-First February, Speaks for All Languages, Muhammad H. Rahman, Bangla Academy
Written by former Chief Justice and former Chief Adviser of the caretaker government Muhammad Habibur Rahman, it is a pioneering book on the importance and preservation of mother languages. Justice Rahman is a barrister and earned his second degree in history from Oxford University. Justice Rahman's threefold goals have been to serve his country, to serve his people by administering justice and to uncover the truth. Rahman is an erudite person, a poet and a thinker. His judicial career has taken him to the top; and he has remained extremely influential through his seventy books, including six books of verses, especially as a philosophical advocate of innovative ideas in discourse whenever he has been invited to speak at public discussions. 21 February is not only the Bangla Language Martyrs Day in Bangladesh, but is also observed as International Mother Language Day. It was on 17 November 1999 that the Paris-based United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) adopted 21 February as International Mother Language Day at the initiative of the Bangladesh government. For the first time, at the call of UNESCO, 21 February 2000 was observed as International Mother Language Day. The Scottish historian and essayist Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) called language "the body of thought". This implies that if a mother tongue is crushed, thoughts and ideas will inevitably die. There is a saying: 'Don't judge a book by its cover.' But in this instance this is not correct because the cover and the contents of the book are both rich in style and ingenious. The book, dealing with the importance of all mother languages, dwells on a basic human desire, that of clinging to the mother tongue from the cradle to the grave. Mother's language is what a baby child communicates for the first time with the mother and the father. Mother language is what a person never forgets no matter where he lives. It is a prism that determines the first notions of the world to a baby child. The umbilical cord between the mother tongue and thought is inseparable. It is the mother tongue that represents the thoughts, culture and heritage of an individual. It is appropriate that Justice Rahman, who was among the first batch of students of Dhaka University to march on the streets on 21 February 1952 in defence of Bangla, has come forth with this book. He was once elected vice president of S.M. Hall students' union and has always been an activist for people's rights. Justice Rahman has first-hand knowledge about what happened on 21 February 1952. He feels very strongly about the importance of the mother tongue in life. The book seems to be the result of his desire to make mother tongues across the world important in a shaping of their lives. It is a unique book containing more than 150 poems chosen from 70 languages and penned by 140 poets of different languages --- from Spanish to Chinese, from Swahili to Japanese, from Hungarian to Russian, from Azeri to Castelliano-Spanish, besides various languages of South Asia. The introduction to the book is very rich in content and depicts what language signifies to an individual. Quoting from religious books and sages of different languages, Justice Rahman has shown that there is no alternative to the mother tongue to know oneself deeply. If one reads the book, one has to go through various translations in English of poems of diverse mother languages. There is a stimulating effect as they include four strands in poems---reflections, impressions, reminiscences and glimpses of life and culture of people of varied ethnic and linguistic background. What a wonderful and creative combination of poems in a variety of mother languages the author presents to readers! Let me quote an extract from a poem of Lu Chi, a Chinese poet: "The writer spreads the fragrance of new flowers,An Abundance of sprouting buds,
Laughing winds lift up the metaphor;
Clouds rise from a forest of writing brushes." (page 29)
A poem in the Azeri language from Bakhtiyar Vahabzade:
"I tasted joy
And unhappiness
With this language.
And I created every poem of mine
And every melody
With this language.
Without it
I am nobody;
I am a lie.
The creator of my work,
In all its volumes and volumes
Is my mother." (page 184)
Another poem is in the Latvian language by Mara Zalite:
"Language, you are a glittering river,
into you I immerse my naked and warm self
caring for the moment,
not understanding eternity." (page 188) The strength of the book rests on the selection of poems Justice Rahman goes for. He shows how the dynamics of mother languages work through poems of individual poets. Justice Rahman asserts that life and language are coterminous. He quotes a traditional Hawaiian proverb: "With language rests life; with language rests death." The present title is able to fill a gap in knowledge and understanding of varied emotions of a human being through the prism of mother languages. The book provides insights into the influence of mother languages in human life and presents a wealth of information on various mother languages. This very reasonably priced book is as refreshing as a new breeze wafting through your mind, taking you into a world far from the madding crowd.
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