Banalata Sen - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Banalata Sen is a Bengali

Bengali language

Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...

poem written in 1934 by the poet Jibanananda Das

Jibanananda Das

Jibanananda Das was a noted Bengali poet. He is considered one of the precursors who introduced modernist poetry to Bengali Literature, at a period when it was influenced by Rabindranath Tagore's Romantic poetry....

that is one of the most read, recited and discussed poems of Bengali literature

Bengali literature

Bengali literature is literary works written in Bengali language particularly from Bangladesh and the Indian provinces of West Bengal and Tripura. The history of Bengali literature traces back hundreds of years while it is impossible to separate the literary trends of the two Bengals during the...

. The title of this lyric poem is a female character referred to by name in the last line of each of its three stanzas. A draft of the poem was also discovered that widely differs from the final version. Poet Jibanananda Das was a quiet person, who preferred to live in obscurity. Until the discovery of his diaries in the mid-1990s, it was considered unlikely that he could have been in love with a woman with or without the name of Banalata Sen. However, Banalata Sen of Natore, a tiny town in the Rajshahi

Rajshahi

The city of Rajshahi is the divisional headquarters of Rajshahi division as well as the administrative district that bears its name and is one of the six metropolitan cities of Bangladesh. Often referred to as Silk City and Education City, Rajshahi is located in the north-west of the country and...

area of what was then Bengal

Bengal

Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...

, has become an emblem of feminine mystery as well as beauty and love.

Introductory notes

"Banalata Sen" was composed by Jibanananda Das in 1934 when he was living in Calcutta, at a time in his life when he had lost his job of Assistant Lecturer at the City College, Kolkata

City College, Kolkata

City College is a constituent undergraduate college of the University of Calcutta. Established in 1881, it is one of the heritage institutions of Calcutta which played a prominent social role in the wake of the Bengal Renaissance of the nineteenth century. The college is located at 102/1, Raja...

. The relevant manuscript was discovered and labelled Book-8 while preserved in the National Library of Calcutta; the poem occurs on page 24 of this manuscript. It was first published in the December 1935 issue of the poetry magazine Kavita
Kavita
*Kavita Rodgers, came in first place in Thomas Kinderwater's Poker Tournament Oct. 21 in Denver, CO and beat out her boyfriend.*Kavita Kaushik, Indian actress*Kavita Subramaniam, Indian playback singer*Kavita Lankesh, movie maker and director in Kannada language...

, edited by poet Buddhadeva Bose. It is also the first poem of his third collection of poetry published in 1942 under the title Banalata Sen. Earlier, the lyric was collected in Modern Bengali Poetry, jointly edited by Abu Sayeed Ayub and Hirendranath Mukhopadhyaya, published in 1939. Although popularly regarded a romantic lyric, the poet’s historical sense of human existence is unmistakably the underlying essence.

Description

The poem consists of three stanzas each comprising six lines composed in the Bengali metrical pattern Aksherbritta or Poyar. The title of this lyric poem, Banalata Sen, is a female character referred to by name in the last line of each of its three stanzas. The poem is self-narrated by an unnamed traveller. Banalata Sen is the name of a woman whom the poem describes as being from the town of Natore, a town in Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

.

In the first stanza the traveller describes seeing her after having wandered upon the earth over thousands of years. The narrator says that it has been a thousand years since he started trekking the earth. He describes it as a long journey in night’s darkness from the Ceylonese waters to the Malayan seas. From this geographical expanse he goes on to the extent of time, saying that, in the course of his wanderings he has traversed the fading world of Vimbisara and Asoka. He adds that he went further, to the forgotten city of Vidarva. Finally he speaks of himself as now being a weary soul although the ocean of life around continues to foam and adds that in the meanwhile he had a few soothing moments with Natore’s Banalata Sen.

In the second stanza the traveller describes Banalata Sen. First he compares her hair with the dark night of long-lost Vidisha. Then he compares her face with the fine works of Sravasti. Then the traveller-narrator recollects that when he saw her in the shadow it was like a cinnamon island lined with greenish grass spotted by a mariner whose ship was wrecked in a faraway sea. In the first encounter Banalata Sen, raising her eyes of profound refuge, inquires of him, “Where had you been lost all these days?”

In the third stanza the traveller returns from geography and history and recalls Banalata Sen with emotion. He says that when at the day’s end evening crawls in like the sound of dews and the kite shakes off the smell of sun from its wings; and, then, when all colours take leave from the world except for the flicker of the hovering fireflies as all birds come home and rivers retire, a time comes when all transactions of the day are done. Then nothing remains but darkness when the traveller would like to sit face-to-face with Banalata Sen and share with her his ballad of stories.

The poet-narrator proceeds by alluding to different mythological and ancient persons, places and events. He describes having wandered from the Ceylonese ocean

Ocean

An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...

to the seas of Malaya

Malay Peninsula

The Malay Peninsula or Thai-Malay Peninsula is a peninsula in Southeast Asia. The land mass runs approximately north-south and, at its terminus, is the southern-most point of the Asian mainland...

, having travelled in Ancient India

History of India

The history of India begins with evidence of human activity of Homo sapiens as long as 75,000 years ago, or with earlier hominids including Homo erectus from about 500,000 years ago. The Indus Valley Civilization, which spread and flourished in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent from...

in the times of Emperor Bimbisara

Bimbisara

Bimbisara was a King, and later, Emperor of the Magadha empire from 543 BC to his death and belonged to the Hariyanka dynasty.-Career:There are many accounts of Bimbisara in the Jain texts and the Buddhist Jatakas, since he was a contemporary of Mahavira and Gautama Buddha. He was the king of...

, and centuries later, in the times of Ashoka the Great. He describes having wandered in darkness in the ancient cities of Vidarbha

Vidarbha

Vidarbha is the eastern region of Maharashtra state made up of Nagpur Division and Amravati Division. Its former name is Berar . It occupies 31.6% of total area and holds 21.3% of total population of Maharashtra...

and Vidisha

Vidisha

Vidisha is a city in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India, located near the state capital Bhopal. Vidishā is the administrative headquarters of Vidisha District. The city was also known as Bhilsa during the medieval period.-Geography:...

, yet, for his tired soul, the only moment of peace in any age was with Banalata Sen of Natore.

The lyric Banalata Sen is the most representative of the essence of Jibanananda's poetry and exemplifies his use of imagery. The weary traveller is an interactive motif in his poetry. The poem itself uses four key images comprehensively, namely the darkness, flowing water, passage of time, and a woman. Jibanananda progressively develops these same four images throughout the poem, metamorphosing these from remoteness to intimacy, dimness to distinction and from separation to union.

Choosing the name

Banalata is a feminine name in the Bengali language that would have been fashionable in the Bengali middle class Bhadralok
Bhadralok
Bhadralok is a Bengali term used to denote the new class of 'gentlefolk' who arose during colonial times in Bengal. It is still used to indicate members of the upper middle and middle classes of Bengal.-Caste and Class makeup:...

community of Jibanananda's parents' generation. The surname "Sen" ordinarily denotes the vaidya caste

Caste

Caste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of endogamy, occupation, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power. It should not be confused with race or social class, e.g. members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race, as in India...

to which Jibanananda's own family belonged before they became Brahmo

Brahmo Samaj

Brahmo Samaj is the societal component of the Brahmo religion which is mainly practiced today as the Adi Dharm after its eclipse in Bengal consequent to the exit of the Tattwabodini Sabha from its ranks in 1859. It was one of the most influential religious movements responsible for the making of...

. Natore is a small mofussil town, now in Bangladesh

Bangladesh

, that developed during the Colonial era

British Raj

British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...

at a time that a number of towns developed throughout Bengal, spurred by the colonial economy and social changes. That places her as a contemporary woman, but Jibanananda describes her in terms of forgotten and classical locations, essentially portraying her as 'timeless'. Other female names that occur in the poetry of Jibanananda are 'Suronjana', 'Sorojini', 'Sabita', 'Shefalika Bose', 'Sujata' and 'Amita Sen', among others. She is as much as a spirit as a woman. Popularly, she is an emblem of beauty. Famous Indian painters

Indian painting

Indian painting has a very long history, although the seasonally humid Indian climate was difficult for the long-term preservation of paintings and there are far fewer survivals than of other forms of Indian art. The earliest Indian paintings were the rock paintings of pre-historic times, the...

who have tried to capture Banalata Sen in their works include Ganesh Paine and Jogen Chaudhuri.

Banalata Sen is a recurrent theme in Jibanananda's work. Jibanananda's poetry, with his characteristic rich tapestry of imagery, repeatedly portrays the image of human fulfillment personified by a woman—in this poem Banalata Sen. For a long time it has been held that no-one like Banalata Sen actually existed in Jibanananda’s life. However, Jibanananda first used this name in Karubasona, by and large an autobiographical novel he wrote in 1932 which was never discussed. The novel was first published in 1986 many years after his death in 1954. There Banalata, a young maiden, happens to be the neighbour of the protagonist. Banalata Sen also occurs in three other poems of Jibanananda Das: Playing for a thousand years, An old poem and Bangalee, Punjabee, Marathee, Gujrati.

Poe's "To Helen"

Often Jibanananda's Banalata Sen has been compared with "To Helen" by Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...

. In a certain sense, Banalata Sen is akin to "To Helen

To Helen

"To Helen" is the first of two poems to carry that name written by Edgar Allan Poe. The 15-line poem was written in honor of Jane Stanard, the mother of a childhood friend. It was first published in 1831 collection Poems of Edgar A. Poe then reprinted in 1836 in the Southern Literary...

". However, while Helen's beauty is the central theme in Poe's work, for Jibanananda, Banalata Sen is merely a framework to hold his anxiety for apparently endless human existence on earth since primordial time. She has occurred with various names like Shaymoli, Sobita, Suronjana, etc. However, one can see that while Poe has ended by appreciating the beauty of a woman, Jibanananda has gone far deeper and on the landscape of a woman's beauty has painted the expanse of human existence both in terms of time and topography, drawing attention to the ephemeral existence of human beings. Unlike the poetry of many others, Jibanananda's poetry is the result of filtered interaction between emotions and intellect. In the endless tumultuous continuum of ‘time’ Banalata Sen is a dot of quietude and tranquillity. Banalata Sen is a feminine emblem that Jibanananda created in his virtual world and faced on many occasions with wonder and questions as embodied in different poems. In sum, although popularly regarded a romantic lyric, the poet’s historical sense of human existence is unmistakably the underlying essence.

Translation into English

Starting with poet Jibanananda Das himself, Banalata Sen has been translated into English by many hands. They include Martin Kirkman, one with the initials S.D., Puroshuttam Das together with Shamosri Das, P. Lal, Mary Lago in collaboration with Tarun Gupta, Pritish Nandy

Pritish Nandy

Pritish Nandy is a Indian poet, painter, journalist, politician, media and television personality, animal activist and film producer. He is Bengali by ethnicity. He was member of Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament representing Maharashtra based party Shiv Sena...

, Chidananda Dasgupta

Chidananda Dasgupta

Chidananda Das Gupta , , was a Bengali Indian filmmaker, a leading film critic, a film historian and one of the founders of Calcutta Film Society with Satyajit Ray in 1947...

, Ananda Lal

Ananda Lal

Ananda Lal is an Indian academic and theatre critic. He is the son of P. Lal, founder of Writers Workshop, one of India's oldest creative writing publishers, established in 1958. He is professor of English at the Jadavpur University, Calcutta...

, Clinton B. Seely

Clinton B. Seely

Clinton B. Seely ,Clinton B. Seely ,Clinton B. Seely ,(born 21 June 1941 is an American academic and translator, and a scholar of Bengali language and literature. He has translated the works of Ramprasad Sen and Michael Madhusudan Dutt and written a biography of Bengali poet Jibanananda Das. He has...

, Sukanta Chaudhuri

Sukanta Chaudhuri

Sukanta Chaudhuri is an internationally renowned Bengali Indian scholar of English literature of the Renaissance period. He was educated at Presidency College, Kolkata and the University of Oxford. He taught at Presidency College from January 1973 to December 1991 and at Jadavpur University from...

, Anupam Banerjee, Hayat Saif, Faizul Latif Chowdhury

Faizul Latif Chowdhury

Faizul Latif Chowdhury is a career civil servant from Bangladesh currently working as a diplomat. A literary figure and an economist at the same time, he works on corruption in public administration, tax policy process, economics of tax evasion and tax avoidance, smuggling, international trade...

, Fakrul Alam

Fakrul Alam

Dr Fakrul Alam is a Bangladeshi academic, writer and translator. He is a professor of English at the University of Dhaka and has written widely on literary matters and postcolonial issues. He also acts as an advisor at the Department of English of East West University...

, Anjana Basu, Joe Winter

Joe Winter

Joe Winter is a British educationist and poet who is renowned for translating poets Rabindranath Tagore and Jibanananda Das.-Biography:He was born in London in 1943 and educated, amongst others, at Exeter College, Oxford. He taught English in secondary schools in London from 1967 to 1994. Taking...

, Ron. D K Banergjee, Joydeep Bhattacharya, Arun Sarker, Amitabha Mukerjee, Santanu Sinha Chaudhuri and Shamik Bose. A comparison of the translations reflect difference in understanding and interpretation as perceived by the translators. In certain points, interpretation by the translator differs from that of the poet himself, as reflected in his own translation.

It is interesting to note one instance where all translators, except one, have decidedly diverted from the temporal sense of the text. The first line haajaar bochor dhore aami path haatitechi prithibir pothey is in present perfect continuous tense. Most translations have rendered this either into simple past tense or present perfect tense. Oblivious of the continuity of the act Martin Kirkman translated : A thousand years I have wandered upon the earth. Amitabha Mukerjee translated : A thousand years I have walked these paths. Sukanta Chaudhuri rendered : I have walked the roads across the earth’s breast for a thousand years. Ananda Lal also used present perfect tense : I have walked the paths of earth for thousands of years. Now the translation by Joydeep Bhattacharya : I have walked earth’s byways for millennia. Fakrul Alam followed suit by writing : For a thousand years I have walked the ways of the world.

On the contrary Clinton B. Seely

Clinton B. Seely

used simple past tense : For thousands of years I roamed the paths of this earth. Joe Winter

Joe Winter

translated : For thousands of years Earth’s path has been my path. This is in line with Jibanananda Das himself who translated like : Long I have been a wanderer of this world. Anjana Basu's translation is not comparable here and hence excluded.

It is Anupam Banerji who maintained the literal sense of the poem (1998) and wrote in translation : For ages I have been walking the paths of this earth. This is partially echoed in translation by Faizul Latif Chowdhury

Faizul Latif Chowdhury

who rendered it like : It has been a thousand years since I started trekking the earth. However, a recent translation by Arun Sarkar again considers present perfect continuous tense : For thousand years I have been walking all over the world.Recently, a translation by Shamik Bose , runs like 'For a thousand years I have been walking upon the bosom of my earth'
.

It is interesting to note that, in 2008, Clinton B. Seely

Clinton B. Seely

improved on his original translation and used present perfect continuous tense.

External links

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