A few words are necessary to justify the publication of a book like this. The idea of this book-a collection of essays on Modern Bengali Poetry-was in my mind for long two years but it could not be worked out due to factors beyond my control. I am now happy to say that this idea that haunted me day and night like a phantom at last finds itself amply rewarded. The exigency of space does not permit me to deal with all poets but be it remembered that those who are left out of discussion may not in some cases inferior to those dealt with. Imperfections there are many, but may not the editor deserve some sympathetic attention of the readers since the difficulties generally found in the publication of such a book are legion in number?
The division of this book has mainly been based on the mood of the poets-mood that is the sine qua non of modernism. Poets of the thirties have been discussed at length separately. Poets of the forties have been divided mainly with regard to their political predilections-those who are prone to left-ideas and those with contrary views. It is quite in the fitness of things that this division may hinge on certain short-sightedness since a cut and dried demarcation is impossible to draw in this respect. Poets of the fifties and sixties have been discussed in four separate essays mainly with an eye to their temperaments. A monograph on the present Bengali Poetry in East Bengal forms the last chapter of this book.
I will be failing in my duty if I do not recognize the deep debt of gratitude to those who have helped me in the materialization of this idea. Particular mention should be made of Dr. Amalendu Bose, Prof. Abu Sayeed Ayyub and Dr. Sushil Kumar Gupta. Any verbal expression of gratitude to them will sound ludicrous in consideration of my personal relation with them. My respected friend Mr. Sushil Mukherjea has always guided and inspired me with his never-failing co-operation and suggestion. I am particularly grateful to Mr. Sunil Bandyopadhyay, Prof. Satya Prasad Chatterjee, Mr. Arun Bhattacharjee and Mr. Asim Chakrabarty, for the time and attention which they have devoted to discussing matters related to the theme of this book.
I also take infinite pleasure in bringing to light the name of my wife Mrs. Usha Ghose, who has always proved a fount of joy & inspiration to me whenever I have been cast adrift into the sea of depair and despondency.
And last but not the least, gratitude is due to those authors who have helped me with their articles even at the cost of their valuable time and thus made my long cherished desire fulfilled.
The word 'modern' is used in a relative sense. Every turn in poetry or in life is perhaps modern in the context of its connecting era. At least Rabindranath meant this for modernism. But that the modernism is, as a matter of fact, a problem connected with its total analysis and has not, on the whole, bothered an artist in the pre-war era either in our country or abroad with such specific importance. Science, psychology and philosophy have constituted the total perspective of this thought and has repeatedly pushed the artist from one contradiction to another. Death has got its position shifted from physical-consciousness to a philosophical quest and life has succeeded through every-moment-combats, against all its antagonistic forces and has searched out with a helpless agony its ultimate emancipation in nihilism leaving its other side in extra-ordinary brightness of optimism which sometime appears to be only a psychological reaction.
The Bengali-Poetry of the last four decades is a passing phase of this contradiction. Although that is dignified in personal realization and self-made utterance of every poet yet, theoritically, the real assessment of its success awaits a time in future. I only take the scope for just presenting the endeavour of this total period.
I felt tempted to describe the post-Tagore change in Bengali-poetry as a revolution. There is no alternative other than noting it with amazement how the poets got the universal perspective giving approval to the whole world as their own and expressed their realization of the crisis of soul being nourished in tradition of Rabindranath only for a short period of time.
Thus, to me, the revolt by Buddhadeva Basu on his individual front is something of greater value than the whole of a political revolution. The individual existence of the world in its wholeness, has sought its voice in the cry of Sudhindranath Datta, while I, in the solitude and loneliness of Jibanananda, find the trace of that home which shall we never get back and which we are always eagerly after. The world-searching eye of Amiya Chakraborty is justly and totally comparable with that of Utrillo while again the Spanish civil war and the resistance movement of French have widely been resounded in the struggle of Bisnu De. When Premendra Mitra and Ajit Datta showed humanistic approach towards life, Samar Sen gave wonderful expression to Marxist view regarding society and individual. With this tradition the emotion and transcendence of the poets of the forties have spread over the canvas of Bengal, sometimes with revolutionary oath, some other times with a triumphant chorus and some other time with a highly individualistic tone. In this connection we may recall the names of Asokvijay Raha, Sanjay Bhattacharya, Bimal Ghosh, Dinesh Das, Haraprasad Mitra, Kamaksiprasad Chatterjee, Sukanta Bhattacharya, Manindra Roy, Subbas Mukhopadhyaya, Birendra Chattopadhaya etc. My existence is so encompassing with the poets of fifties and sixties that I simply disapprove of the comment of Seneca and identify myself with the personality of every poet of this period. They jointly exhibit my Bengal and Bengali poetry to me. I may mention in this connection names of poets like Biswa Bandopadhyaya, Chitta Ghosh, Nirendranath Chakravarty, Ram Basu, Sushil Kumar Gupta, Alokranjan Das Gupta, Alok Sarkar, Sakti Chattopadhyaya, Sunil Ganga-padhyaya, Arabinda Guha, Ratneswar Hazra etc.
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