Naked Lonely Hand

One of the greatest poets of the subcontinent, Jibanananda Das (1899-1954) redefined the parameters of Bengali poetry in the wake of the impression left by the work of his more traditional compatriot, Rabindranath Tagore. Idiosyncratic in style and with an affinity for the bylanes of the imagination, Jibanananda Das stands unusually close to the reader. The tensions of the everyday modern world are in his poetry, as well as Bengal's living land. It has been said that Nature is a character in his work. Almost magically popular in West Bengal and Bangladesh, his poetry is presented here in a new English translation that catches the form and freshness of the original.