Dhaka, May 9 -- No one remains the same after having read Jasimuddin's Nakshi Kanthar Math (The Field of Embroidered Quilt). That is because, as observers point out, the ballad, published in 1929, locates the cardinal virtue of poetry in its ability to embody the extreme beauty of simplicity. In the process, poetry transforms the rude transience of everyday life into the elegant permanence of art.

William Wordsworth said that poetic style should reflect the language really used by humble and rustic people. Jasimuddin does just that in his long poems. He speaks of the two lovers Ruapai and Saju who transcend, as I have written in my book, Sohag Chand: Homage to Bengal, "the warring distance between their two villages, which are separated ...