TEHRAN -- The Greater Mymensingh Cultural Forum and Iran’s cultural attaché’s office in Bangladesh jointly commemorated the late Moniruddin Yusuf, the Bangladeshi translator of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, during a ceremony on July 22.

Yusuf’s translation was published in 1992 but Rashedul Hassan Shelly, the forum’s Chief Secretary, said that their plans for promoting the works of Ferdowsi and the Shahnameh had fallen behind schedule. He expressed hope that they would be able to organize various programs for the introduction of Ferdows’s works in the near future. Mohammd Abdul Hai, a Bangladeshi literary researcher, presented his article entitled “Poet Moniruddin Yusuf and Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh”. He said that Yusuf’s six-volume rendering of Ferdowsi’s immortal work the Shahnameh is one of many world masterpieces that have been translated into the Bengali language. Abdul Hai added that the Shahnameh was originally written in traditional verse and Yusuf had paraphrased it artistically in the Bengali language. K. M. Saiful Islam Khan, associated professor at the University of Dhaka’s Department of Urdu and Persian, stated that little attention had been paid to Persian literature in Bangladesh over recent years. He continued by saying that he hoped that Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh would be a unifying influence between the peoples of Iran and Bangladesh. Hashemi, the Iranian cultural attaché in Bangladesh, remarked that the Shahnameh is one of the treasuries of Persian culture and language. Many international scholars and intellectuals have profited from this masterpiece and shared their interpretations with the world and Moniruddin Yusuf is to be numbered amongst them. He said that the Shahnameh is a unique masterpiece which has influenced other countries and cultures. He added that its impact could be traced in many Turkish, Armenian, French and English works. Yusuf, Moniruddin (1919-1987), wrote poetry, fiction, plays, essays, biographies and autobiographies. Alongside he also undertook research on Urdu and Persian literary works. Amongst his finest works are a massive history of Urdu literature and the translation of Ferdowsi’s epic Shahnameh into the Bengali language