Actor Soumitra Chatterjee started writing poems since his late school days but seriously took to it once in college. Having the likes of Shakti Chattopadhyay and Sunil Ganguly among his friends did help Soumitra to emerge as a poet of prominence. His first book of poems (Jalapropater Dhaare Danrabo Bole) came out in 1975 and since then there are several books to his credit. It was the melancholy tune of a loner which reverberated throughout the body of his work – the forms changed, the words became crisper and staccato, the images more direct though picturesque.
For this collection translator Amitava Nag chose the poems that appealed to him most for their passionately dispassionate rendering of the solitary man, his struggles, his defeats and his eternal quest to rise from the ashes.
Images, metaphors, symbols, mythical references and the likes may get diluted through translation. Yet, translations open up jewels of one language to the interested readers seeking to soak in the experience. This collection hopes that Soumitra Chatterjee’s poetic identity reveals itself with its latent luminance. The translations contained in this collection aspire for an engaging reading and hope to export the reader to Soumitra Chatterjee’s literary world.
