'Fond readers are the worst editors as it is hard for them to select the best out of one's complete works,' asserted Saleh Chowdhury. 'Although not all poems of a poet are best, but Shamsur Rahman is exceptional. Many creations of the poet have been lost in time, especially his translations of the poems of Khwaja Farid. Only 41 songs the poet has written are found out of almost 250,' he informed.

'When we were drifted away from the romantic poets like Jibanananda Das and Buddhadev Basu and inspired by the poems of Sukanta Bhattacharya, Subhash Mukhopadhyay, Nazim Hikmet and the Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovoski during 1947-'48, Shamsur Rahman came to the scene. His Telemachus, Asader Shirt, Bornomala, Amar Dukhini Bornomala, Swadhinota Tumi have earned timeless appeal. His famous lines like Choter porda shoriye dekhi kothay achhi depict the turmoil of our present time. Or, through the line Udbhot uter pithey cholechhey swadesh we can realise the situation of the whole Bangla', said a nostalgic Mustafa Nurul Islam.

Nirmalendu Goon, Humayun Ahmed, Zillur Rahaman Siddiqui and ABM Musa pointed out different facets of the poet that reveal his versatility as a translator, lyricist and novelist apart from his poetic identity.

Shera Shamsur Rahman contains 122 poems, two novels, two short stories, 38 essays, 26 rhymes, 41 songs, memoirs, letters and excerpts of an interview taken by Humayun Azad. Dedicated to Humayun Azad, the book is priced at Tk. 500.

The evening started with Lily Islam's rendition of Tagore's Anondolokey mongolalokey and one of Shamsur Rahman's famous patriotic songs--Amar onek rin achhey. Pragna Laboni and Kazi Arif recited poems of Shamsur Rahman.