‘A Seaman’s Wife’ is the English translation of a novel by Shahidulla Kaiser, one of the major figures of Bengali fiction. The translation is by Syed Najmuddin Hashim (1925–1999), who read English at Presidency College, Kolkata, and went on to a long career as journalist, diplomat, editor and broadcaster — serving as Bangladesh’s Minister of Information and as ambassador to Burma, Singapore, the USSR, Finland and Mongolia.
Hashim’s own writings include ‘Bandishala Pakistan’ and translations of the poetry of Abu Zafar Obaidullah and Shamsur Rahman, and that literary sensibility carries into this rendering. Published by Prothoma Prokashon, the book brings a classic of Bengali fiction to English-language readers.
