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Me Migrant
Me Migrant features the poems of Md Mukul Hossine – poems originally written in Bengali by Mukul, transcreated by Singapore poet Cyril Wong based on English translations by Fariha Imran and Farouk Ahammed. It represents the voice of hope and inclusiveness, of longing and dreaming, of service and heart.
This collection was born of the friendship between volunteers of community clinic HealthServe and foreign construction workers. Dr Tan Lai Yong, a volunteer medical doctor at Healthserve and his team of medical students from National University of Singapore (NUS) were inspired by their experiences and Mukul's poems to respond with some writings of their own.
The poetry within these pages makes us see farther, think deeper, and listen. In listening, let us cross these borders.
This collection was born of the friendship between volunteers of community clinic HealthServe and foreign construction workers. Dr Tan Lai Yong, a volunteer medical doctor at Healthserve and his team of medical students from National University of Singapore (NUS) were inspired by their experiences and Mukul's poems to respond with some writings of their own.
The poetry within these pages makes us see farther, think deeper, and listen. In listening, let us cross these borders.
- GenresPoetryNonfiction
68 pages, Paperback
Published April 1, 2016
5 people are currently reading
80 people want to read
About the author
Mukul Hossine
2 books2 followersMd Mukul Hossine was born in Patgram, Bangladesh, and has a Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences. In 2008, he arrived in Singapore and has been working in its construction sector.
Mukul writes poems, novels, and short stories. He enjoys composing poetry to remember his mother back home and has spent many long nights writing. His favourite poet is Rabindranath Tagore.
His novel, Buker Simanaye Sukh (Happiness at Heart’s Edge) and his poetry collection Apurna Vasana (Unfulfilled Desire) have been published in Bangladesh.
Mukul writes poems, novels, and short stories. He enjoys composing poetry to remember his mother back home and has spent many long nights writing. His favourite poet is Rabindranath Tagore.
His novel, Buker Simanaye Sukh (Happiness at Heart’s Edge) and his poetry collection Apurna Vasana (Unfulfilled Desire) have been published in Bangladesh.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
June 16, 2020
This should be taught in our schools instead of that really boring book, Sing to the Dawn. I was really emotional after reading this.
This book is broken up into three parts - the first part and last part are poems by the poet about his experiences as a migrant, and the middle part is a poem by Singaporean volunteers who work with migrant workers. There was one poem in Chinese that I really really loved. Reminded me of my relatives speak and of the Chinese migrant worker I once knew. The reflections by fellow privileged Singaporeans who are humbled and sobered into thinking more about the comforts of our lives at the expense of people like Mukul struck me powerfully.
But really, I loved Mukul's poems. There is an earnestness and simplicity to his poetry and they convey his experiences very powerfully. Some really made me very emotional. Recurring experiences are: feeling invisible, as though he doesn't matter, because no one really looks at him or pays attention to him in our society; longing and missing his family and loved ones (especially his mother); feeling grief over his difficult circumstances; missing his homeland; wondering if this was all worth it.
The recent conversations around race have made me think of my own position and I wish this book was taught in our schools because there's a lot here that could make us reflect more on the things we take for granted and expect, and how much it comes at someone else's expense. It's hard to deny that someone's suffering is valid when you're seeing his humanity.
This book is broken up into three parts - the first part and last part are poems by the poet about his experiences as a migrant, and the middle part is a poem by Singaporean volunteers who work with migrant workers. There was one poem in Chinese that I really really loved. Reminded me of my relatives speak and of the Chinese migrant worker I once knew. The reflections by fellow privileged Singaporeans who are humbled and sobered into thinking more about the comforts of our lives at the expense of people like Mukul struck me powerfully.
But really, I loved Mukul's poems. There is an earnestness and simplicity to his poetry and they convey his experiences very powerfully. Some really made me very emotional. Recurring experiences are: feeling invisible, as though he doesn't matter, because no one really looks at him or pays attention to him in our society; longing and missing his family and loved ones (especially his mother); feeling grief over his difficult circumstances; missing his homeland; wondering if this was all worth it.
The recent conversations around race have made me think of my own position and I wish this book was taught in our schools because there's a lot here that could make us reflect more on the things we take for granted and expect, and how much it comes at someone else's expense. It's hard to deny that someone's suffering is valid when you're seeing his humanity.
June 13, 2017
I read this in a day and was sitting in the comforts of Rubinahs, drinking two cups of limau panas and tissue Prata with condensed milk. I felt this sense of familiarity reading the poems and short stories. Wish I could put a face to the words written. It's such a beautiful read to get a glimpse of what's behind the faces of migrant workers. They are no different from us. Yearning mother's love, greener pastures and a fulfilled life worth living. Highly recommend ❤️
September 10, 2020
Mukul writes with such moving and painful honesty. Worth the read - insight from an uncommon perspective in Singapore which hopefully we can see much more of in the days ahead
November 28, 2020
This collection opened my eyes to see Singapore's migrant workers with a different perspective. Most of them do jobs involving manual labour, like construction work in Md Mukul's case. But how many of them actually have artistic interests and talents? How many of them write poetry when they return to their dormitories at night? How many of them, like Md Mukul, have university degrees?
Md Mukul isn't a professional poet, and he doesn't pretend to be. Moreover his poems were written in Bengali and translated to English by another person. And while you can translate prose with some degree of accuracy, how do you translate poetry and capture the rhythm and nuances of the original poem? I wish I could read and understand these in their original language, but we have to make do with Cyril Wong's laudable effort.
Despite these barriers, there is a deep sense of beauty in Md Mukul's poems. Common themes are longing for his mother, his loved ones, and the familiar objects and rituals in Bangladesh, and his tiredness and disillusionment with his work. Scattered in are a few poems speaking of his gratitude to Singapore. I read these poems like a glimpse into a private diary, imagining Md Mukul writing them in his bed, late at night, after a long day of hard work under the sun, nursing his painful limbs and missing what he left behind in Bangladesh.
The book is divided into three section. The first contains poems by Md Mukul mainly of pain and loss. The second contains four poems written by medical students who volunteered with HealthServe, the organisation that helped to produce the book and that provides healthcare to migrant workers. Amongst these is a wonderful poem in Chinese by Chen Ting An, dedicated to a Chinese migrant worker she interviewed while serving in HealthServe. The third section returns to Md Mukul, this time with poems of longing, with a few more upbeat poems.
The poem under the spoiler tag was one of my favourites. I hope I'm allowed to copy it here. If not, please let me know and I'll remove it.
Md Mukul isn't a professional poet, and he doesn't pretend to be. Moreover his poems were written in Bengali and translated to English by another person. And while you can translate prose with some degree of accuracy, how do you translate poetry and capture the rhythm and nuances of the original poem? I wish I could read and understand these in their original language, but we have to make do with Cyril Wong's laudable effort.
Despite these barriers, there is a deep sense of beauty in Md Mukul's poems. Common themes are longing for his mother, his loved ones, and the familiar objects and rituals in Bangladesh, and his tiredness and disillusionment with his work. Scattered in are a few poems speaking of his gratitude to Singapore. I read these poems like a glimpse into a private diary, imagining Md Mukul writing them in his bed, late at night, after a long day of hard work under the sun, nursing his painful limbs and missing what he left behind in Bangladesh.
The book is divided into three section. The first contains poems by Md Mukul mainly of pain and loss. The second contains four poems written by medical students who volunteered with HealthServe, the organisation that helped to produce the book and that provides healthcare to migrant workers. Amongst these is a wonderful poem in Chinese by Chen Ting An, dedicated to a Chinese migrant worker she interviewed while serving in HealthServe. The third section returns to Md Mukul, this time with poems of longing, with a few more upbeat poems.
The poem under the spoiler tag was one of my favourites. I hope I'm allowed to copy it here. If not, please let me know and I'll remove it.
May 20, 2020
"Everything in my life changed because of money, like the affection of my parents, love from other family members, studies, some dreams of my life, my singing of songs—everything has been lost just for the lack of money."
I finished this slim collection in a day. The poems by Mukul are heart-rending, especially the ones where expresses how much he misses his mother, and when he longs for home. Singaporeans often say that migrant workers are better off in Singapore than in their home country, but in Mukul's poems, home is where his belly is full, where he receives love, and where his surroundings are blissful. His descriptions of his situation here, on the other hand, are full of despair—"Expatriate means dream-drenched agony." / "Why are workers and labourers dying? / Why is there no justice?" / "Walking in the streets without boundaries / How I lost myself I don't know / I possess no address"
His love poems were really beautiful and sounded quite different from the others. Some lines that I found beautiful were in the poem "Lunar Face", especially "In your deep black hair / clouds lose their way". In fact, there were some lines that would carry this level of profundity throughout the book which makes me wonder how much is retained or lost in translation and transcreation (the poems were "transcreated" by Cyril Wong).
Cyril wong had written in the introduction that "To his credit, Mukul had striven to leave out [the] more predictable banalities and focused on poeticising emotions or projecting them into the realm of the mythic and imagined universal." This gave me pause because I wonder why expressing the material challenges of a migrant worker was less desired than universal themes. But at the same time, I can also understand that the poetry of a migrant worker should not also be reduced to their suffering & that they are seen as capable of expressing profound universal truths too. In fact, I think both of this can co-exist.
Another thing was that Cyril Wong transcreated the title "Me Migrant" according to how he heard Mukul speak the first time they met, & this stiltedness was also present throughout the language of the poems, I don't know if this was intended, but I wonder how different it would be if we read his poems with a smoother language, as per normal speech if he were to read it in the original Bengali. Btw, before this, he had published a novel and a poetry collection in Bangladesh!
I finished this slim collection in a day. The poems by Mukul are heart-rending, especially the ones where expresses how much he misses his mother, and when he longs for home. Singaporeans often say that migrant workers are better off in Singapore than in their home country, but in Mukul's poems, home is where his belly is full, where he receives love, and where his surroundings are blissful. His descriptions of his situation here, on the other hand, are full of despair—"Expatriate means dream-drenched agony." / "Why are workers and labourers dying? / Why is there no justice?" / "Walking in the streets without boundaries / How I lost myself I don't know / I possess no address"
His love poems were really beautiful and sounded quite different from the others. Some lines that I found beautiful were in the poem "Lunar Face", especially "In your deep black hair / clouds lose their way". In fact, there were some lines that would carry this level of profundity throughout the book which makes me wonder how much is retained or lost in translation and transcreation (the poems were "transcreated" by Cyril Wong).
Cyril wong had written in the introduction that "To his credit, Mukul had striven to leave out [the] more predictable banalities and focused on poeticising emotions or projecting them into the realm of the mythic and imagined universal." This gave me pause because I wonder why expressing the material challenges of a migrant worker was less desired than universal themes. But at the same time, I can also understand that the poetry of a migrant worker should not also be reduced to their suffering & that they are seen as capable of expressing profound universal truths too. In fact, I think both of this can co-exist.
Another thing was that Cyril Wong transcreated the title "Me Migrant" according to how he heard Mukul speak the first time they met, & this stiltedness was also present throughout the language of the poems, I don't know if this was intended, but I wonder how different it would be if we read his poems with a smoother language, as per normal speech if he were to read it in the original Bengali. Btw, before this, he had published a novel and a poetry collection in Bangladesh!
May 18, 2020
This slim book mainly consisted of a collection of poems by a foreign construction worker in Singapore. The poems focused on his longing for home. On the one hand, it was a sentiment that many readers can probably relate to. On the other hand, it seemed so generic and abstract that I felt like it could have been written by anyone; perhaps the author wanted to avoid making politically incorrect statements or perhaps something was lost in translation. I did not get insights into issues related to migrant workers, as compared to local plays such as "Dragonflies" by Pangdemonium and "Supervision" by Wild Rice. Nonetheless, I appreciate the fact that efforts were made into bringing to light the author's thoughts and talents, reminding us that we should not dehumanise migrant workers. I also enjoyed the contributions by the medical students from the National University of Singapore who volunteered at the community clinic HealthServe, as they reflected on topics such as abuse and privilege. This was a timely read in view of the high number of COVID-19 cases among migrant workers in Singapore as a result of poor living and working conditions.
October 26, 2020
I didn't enjoy the few pages I've read of this book.
Don't get me wrong, I am passionate about serving migrant-workers in Singapore. But I fail to appreciate the "poetry" on display in this book.
How many times can one read "artistic allusions" to the sky, in one sitting, anyway: Page 10 ("my mind's sky"), Page 14 ("pain's blue sky"), who-knows-how-many-more skies..
And Cyril Wong's Editorial Note led me to think that I am reading Mr. Cyril Wong's caricature of Mr. Md Mukul Hossine. ("Warm, trusting, garrulous").
Perhaps the team behind this book might find it helpful to read Edward Said's "Orientalism" and see how its elements may apply to the dynamics between the middle class of Singapore and the migrant-workers on the island.
I am off to read a play by Elfriede Jelinek, "what happened after Nora left her husband", which is related to Ibsen's "A doll's house". I enjoy that much more.
Don't get me wrong, I am passionate about serving migrant-workers in Singapore. But I fail to appreciate the "poetry" on display in this book.
How many times can one read "artistic allusions" to the sky, in one sitting, anyway: Page 10 ("my mind's sky"), Page 14 ("pain's blue sky"), who-knows-how-many-more skies..
And Cyril Wong's Editorial Note led me to think that I am reading Mr. Cyril Wong's caricature of Mr. Md Mukul Hossine. ("Warm, trusting, garrulous").
Perhaps the team behind this book might find it helpful to read Edward Said's "Orientalism" and see how its elements may apply to the dynamics between the middle class of Singapore and the migrant-workers on the island.
I am off to read a play by Elfriede Jelinek, "what happened after Nora left her husband", which is related to Ibsen's "A doll's house". I enjoy that much more.
May 5, 2020
Lovely collection. Forget Barthes, these poems are best savoured with Md Mukul Hossine's background as a Bangladeshi migrant worker in mind. It made me appreciate the work of HealthServe. Poems I enjoyed:
Golden Mother
Eid Abroad
Expatriate Dream
等待的背后 by Chen Ting An
Your Father by Tessa Lim
It's a timely read on the emotional heartbreak and solitude that migrants experience, now that the spotlight is on migrants' dormitory conditions in Singapore due to the covid-19 outbreak.
Golden Mother
Eid Abroad
Expatriate Dream
等待的背后 by Chen Ting An
Your Father by Tessa Lim
It's a timely read on the emotional heartbreak and solitude that migrants experience, now that the spotlight is on migrants' dormitory conditions in Singapore due to the covid-19 outbreak.
November 28, 2020
4.5 stars
The first part of the book was so painful and upsetting that the last part that exuded hope felt like a breath of fresh air.
I didn’t particularly enjoy the middle part as I felt like it detracted from Mukul’s heartfelt poems, but I did like the poem in Chinese — it was very compelling.
Mukul is a really good poet and I enjoyed his work very much. This book should be required reading; it has humanised the migrants we have failed to recognise year after year.
The first part of the book was so painful and upsetting that the last part that exuded hope felt like a breath of fresh air.
I didn’t particularly enjoy the middle part as I felt like it detracted from Mukul’s heartfelt poems, but I did like the poem in Chinese — it was very compelling.
Mukul is a really good poet and I enjoyed his work very much. This book should be required reading; it has humanised the migrants we have failed to recognise year after year.
March 16, 2025
there is something so earnest and sincere in mukul's poetic voice. reading his book really makes you realise how human these foreign workers are too, despite how alienated they may be in our society. they have families back home, they have desires, they have passions and dreams. in the literature scene, we normally see the voices of these migrant workers being represented by local authors, but hearing from one themself, paints a much more authentic image of the community.
December 21, 2023
After reading 400 books in 2023, this is hands down my favorite read of the year. So moving, clear and beautiful. Have picked it up to reread many times. I cry, I laugh, I rage. Have bought for several friends. Definitely recommend!!
Read
December 26, 2025Read for English class.
Poems read:
- Today My Mind's Sky
- Loneliness
- Eid Abroad
- Me Migrant
- Expatriate Dream
- Mother
- I Will Be a Firefly
- Grandmother
- I Stand at the Red Light
Poems read:
- Today My Mind's Sky
- Loneliness
- Eid Abroad
- Me Migrant
- Expatriate Dream
- Mother
- I Will Be a Firefly
- Grandmother
- I Stand at the Red Light
April 25, 2020
Me Migrant by Md Mukul Hossine is a collection of powerful poems. Evocative, sophisticated, haunting.
July 6, 2020
Working class poetry is a tradition other than exception. They just need more exposure to the public and more voices from different places all over the world.
October 2, 2021
Did not actually finish the book cos poems are really not my thing. Had to read it for a book club and so I tried but poetry is really not up my alley.
November 7, 2016
The book speaks of a migrant working in Singapore. The blood, sweat, and tears written into its rawest text form conveyed a saddening side to migrant workers - the side we choose not to see. In this short compilation of poems written from the perspective of a migrant himself, Md Mukul explores his poetic world and ventures through life, penning his thoughts in the best way he can.
I felt extremely sorrowful as I read his poems. Though they were simple, his messages came by strong. I truly admire this poet.
I felt extremely sorrowful as I read his poems. Though they were simple, his messages came by strong. I truly admire this poet.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews