Poet Profile

Shakhawat Tipu

Shakhawat Tipu was born in 1971, lives in Dhaka. He is a distinguished poet, essayist and editor from Bangladesh. A prominent figure of the new Bengali poetic movement, Tipu established himself as a leading poet of his generation. His poems have been translated in Greek, Spanish, Italian, Serbian, Slovenian and English. He has published two Haiku collections and seven titles of poems and a book on a famous Bengali sculptor and her works. Tipu edited Jatiya Shahittya (2008), a magazine of linguistics and philosophy and Charalnama (2011), a collection of street people's interviews with a subaltern dictionary. His poems appeared in many magazines and anthologies around the world. He is a founder editor at Tarka Bangla [ A Popular Bangla Literary Journal].

Books Published:

Feather of wings (Komorebi ni nureru) [English and Italian version], translated and published by Valentina Meloni, published July 3, 2019, Italy; Pap Punyo [Bengali Haiku Collection, English title: Sin and Virtue], Publisher: Baibhab, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2020.

if the rose spines 
understand the beauty of flowers 
how much pain her

to escape 
gray lightning shines 
in the sky

goes to spring 
on the leaves drop 
rickety sky

feather of wings 
the swelling of the swelling 
sunshine in shadow

the doves sound 
what the moon knows 
sleep in the dark

Alabama flowers 
in the ears of the queen 
hanging in pain

Credits:

“if the rose spines”, “to escape” – Rigorous Vol. Three, Issue 4 (2019); “goes to spring”, “feather of wings”, ”the doves sound” - Feather of Wings (Komorebi Ni Nureru) Issue 1, July 2019; “Alabama flowers” - Hohlev, October 24, 2019.