Biography
Masud Khan is a poet, writer, and translator. He was born on May 29, 1959 in Bangladesh. He did his bachelor’s degree at the Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology, and master’s from Royal Roads University, Canada. He is engineer by profession. He emerged as an important poet in the 1980s, mainly through anti-establishment magazines. Apart from those in Bangladesh, his writings have been featured in various magazines in India, the USA, UK, Belgium, and Canada. His poems have appeared in a number of anthologies including LANGUAGE FOR A NEW CENTURY: CONTEMPORARY POETRY FROM THE MIDDLE EAST, ASIA, AND BEYOND published by W. W Norton & Company, New York/London, and PADMA MEGNA JAMUNA: MODERN POETRY FROM BANGLADESH published by the Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature, New Delhi. He has, to date, authored three volumes of poetry: PAKHITEERTHADINEY (ON THE DAY OF BIRDS’ PILGRIMAGE, 1993), NADIKULE KARI BAS (WE DO LIVE BY THE RIVERS, 2001), SARAIKHANA O HARANO MANUSH (THE INN AND THE MISSING MEN, 2006). He received the Bogra Lekhak Chakra (Bogra Writers’ Circle) Award for poetry in 1994. He currently lives in Toronto, Canada.

Magic

- by Masud Khan (Translated from the Bengali by Dr. Fakrul Alam)

Like when a piece of iron falls in love with a piece of wood
Causing the iron to float on water,
Or like when the magic of love casts a spell
Making stone float on liquid,
For ages, in nation after nation,
People contrive to float stones,
For diverse reasons and occasions,
Letting love and desire take diverse forms in manifold texts
and discourses...