মহমদ শহ করশ-এর Poèmes Mystiques Bengalis: পরসথত, পরবশ, পরচয় | Mahmud Shah Qureshi’s Poèmes Mystiques Bengalis: Context, Milieu, and Identity

Mahmud Shah Qureshi's 1977 anthology Poèmes Mystiques Bengalis was the first substantial collection to translate Bengali Baul and Fakir songs from Bengali into French, published within UNESCO's Collection of Representative Works shortly after Bangladesh's independence. The article examines the anthology's compilation, its role in shaping an international image of Bengali mystical culture, and Qureshi's introductory essay and thematic arrangement of 155 songs under initiation, meditation, and perfection.

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Abstract

Published in Paris in 1977, Mahmud Shah Qureshi’s Poèmes Mystiques Bengalis was the first substantial anthology to translate Bengali Baul and Fakir songs directly from Bengali into French. Prepared within the broader intellectual and cultural framework of UNESCO’s Collection of Representative Works, the volume introduced French readers to the mystical, philosophical, and performative traditions of Bengal at a significant historical moment, shortly after the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent nation. This article examines the circumstances of the anthology’s compilation, its place in the history of Bengali-to-French translation, and its role in constructing an international image of Bengali mystical culture. The study analyses Qureshi’s introductory essay, the thematic arrangement of 155 songs under the categories of initiation, meditation, and perfection, and his representation of Baul-Fakir beliefs, practices, social identities, and embodied spirituality. It also investigates the textual sources of the anthology, particularly the collections of Muhammad Mansuruddin, Upendranath Bhattacharya, Motilal Das, and Ahmad Sharif. Special attention is given to questions of authorship, oral transmission, attribution, variant readings, misplaced signatures, unidentified songs, and the complex editorial history of compositions ascribed to Lalon Shah, Panju Shah, Madan Shah, Gagan Harkara, Hasan Raja, and other mystic poets. By comparing the French translations with available Bengali versions, the article identifies both the pioneering importance and the limitations of Qureshi’s work. While his largely literal translations made an extraordinary body of Bengali mystical poetry accessible to a French readership, they often struggled to preserve the songs’ rhythm, musicality, symbolic density, esoteric vocabulary, and performative character. Nevertheless, Poèmes Mystiques Bengalis remains a foundational work in the global reception of Bengali mystical literature and an indispensable document for the study of translation, authorship, cultural mediation, and the international history of Baul-Fakir traditions.