Review: Acrobat by Nabaneeta Dev Sen; Poems translated by Nandana Dev Sen

The late Nabaneeta Dev Sen is a vital figure in modern Bengali literature with more than a hundred books either written or edited by her to her credit and though she wrote a lot more prose, it was poetry that was the heartbeat of her writing. Poetry was my first confidence.” In an admirable introduction, her daughter and translator, the actor and activist Nandana Dev Sen says that this is a selection from six decades of poetry, which includes a few of her mother’s own translations. Her mother pleads as she reads: “I have just one more page left/one more paragraph, one more sentence—/give me one more word, dear nurse,/just one more day.” Several of the poems are short, crisp and evocative as this one called Time: She is only asking for time/Five minutes, nothing more./Because she knows/She can stretch/Those five minutes/Into a lifetime.’ And this one: ‘Like an old alarm clock/You start ringing in my heart/I shut my ears tight.’ Nabaneeta Dev Sen at a prize distribution event at Science City auditorium in Kolkata, West Bengal on June 19, 2011. But this collection should be best remembered by a poem like Reflection: ‘In an empty room/at a lonely table/my reflection in the glass whispers,/ ‘How are you, Nabaneeta?’…’In an even softer whisper/the steam from my cup of tea/sends the secret reply’.