Syed, Abdul Mannan
Syed, Abdul Mannan (1943-2010) poet, essayist, researcher and literary critic, was born on 3 August 1943 in the district of the 24-Parganas in West Bengal. His father was A. M Badruddoza and mother Anwara Mazid. He passed Matriculation examination in 1958 from the Nawabpur Government High School in Dhaka and Intermediate of Arts in 1960 from dhaka college. He obtained BA (Hons) in Bangla in 1963 and MA in 1964 from Dhaka University. He got his PhD from Rabindra Bharati University, Calcutta.
Abdul Mannan Syed started his career as a Lecturer in Bangla in M.C College, Sylhet. Later, he served in Sheikh Burhanuddin College and in jagannath college and retired from service in 1998. Afterwards, he carried out the responsibilities as First Scholar in Bangladesh North South University. He worked in the District Gazetteer for some time. From 2002 to 2004 he had been the Executive Director of Nazrul Institute. He was also associated with the Shilpataru, a monthly literary journal.'
Abdul Mannan Syed, started writing poems since 1960. His first book of poetry Janmandha Kavita Guchchha (a collection of poems) was published in 1967. His poem represents the reflection of consciousness of death, romanticism, surrealism, symbolism and sometimes absurdity. An experimental researcher, Abdul Mannan all through aspired to change in his subject and style of writing. In his poems, he occasionally used moon, sun, sky and cloud as symbols of his imagination. Furthermore, he leveled a great deal of experimentation on lyric. probodh chandra sen (1897-1986) and mofazzal haider chaudhuri (1926-1971) were his teacher in lyric.
Abdul Mannan Syed, a critic of Bangla literature conducted considerable research on the literary works on jibananda das and kazi nazrul islam, farrukh ahmad, syed waliullah, manik bandyopadhyay, bishnu de, Samar Sen, roquiah sakhawat hossain, Abdul Ghani Hazari, Muhammad Wajed Ali, Prabodh Chandra Sen.
Abdul Mannan Syed's major literary works include: poetry Janmandha Kavita Guchchha (1967), Nirbachita Kavita (1975), Kavita Company Private Limited (1982), Parabastob Kavita (1982), Park Streete Ek Ratri (1983), Machh Series (1984), Nirbachita Kavita (2002); Short story Satyer Mato Badmax (1968), Chalo Jai Parokse (1973), Mrtyur Adhik Lal Ksudha (1977); Novel Paripreaksiter Das Dasi (1974), A-te Ajogar (1982), Gabhir Gabhirtara Asukh (1983), Ksudha Prem Agoon (1944), Shrabastir Dinratri (1998); Research work Jibanananda Daser Kavita (1974), Nazrul Islam: Kavi O Kavita, Karotale Mohadesh (1979), Chhanda (1985), Rabindranath (2001), Abdul Ghani Hazari (1989), Syed Murtaza Ali (1990),' Prabodh Chandra Sen (1994); Drama Chaka (1985), Natya Guchchha (1991), Kavi O Anyera (1996); Translation work Matal Manchitra (1970); Edited work Farrukh Ahmed-er Shrestha Kavita (1975); Samalochana Samagra: Jibanananda Das (1983), Bangladesher Kavita (1988), Samar Sener Nirbachita Kavita (1989), Sudhindranath Dutter Sunirbachita Kavita (1990), Muhammad Wazed Ali Rachanavali (1st Part 1990, 2nd Part 1992), Michael Madhusudan Dutta: Shrestha Kavita (1992), Shrestha Prabandha: Begum Roquiah (2002).
For his contribution to Bangla literature Abdul Mannan was awarded Bangla Academy Literary Award (1981), Alaol Literary Award, Farrukh Memorial Award (1991), Nazrul Award (1998), Nazrul Padak (2001) by Nazrul Institute, Talim Hossein Award (2000), Lekhika Sangha Award, Alokta Sahitya Puraskar (2002). He died in Dhaka on 5 September 2010. [Shamima Akhter]
