In ‘Self Portrait 1991’, a poem in this volume, Murtaja Baseer mentions his calling and hobbies: painting, reading, gathering matchbox labels from home and abroad, philately, researches into Bengal Sultanate. He does not, however, tell of his efforts at producing fictions and poems, nor of collection of coins. Murtaja Baseer is in fact, a multifaceted talent. He is. Indeed, a front ranking painter of Bangladesh. His fictions have elicited eager responses from the readers who also took interest in his poems. His historical researches have been well received at home and abroad….. He has himself rendered the poems into English. The present volume is basically a work of translation, the originals merely accompany the renditions. …. The pieces, in the main, are love poems. These are references to nature and to places at home and abroad,?but all these are presented as a background of the emotional experience. The poems deal with the variety of deep feelings of love. As a versifier he is quite careful about the metre. His style is simple and graceful. …. Anisuzzaman