“Force and Creation” Translated by Sumit Ray Dabaav aur Srijan by Yatish (Hindi) Have you seen a mountainor a river form?Have you seen a forest growor a star being added to the galaxy? Mountains of sorroware also formed unseenRivers of feelingsalso flow unwanted in silence. Everyone seesthe growth of the trunkand fruit laden branches bowing…
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Basudhara Roy
“Dangerous” translated by Basudhara Roy Khatarnak by Leeladhar Mandloi (Hindi) With those I have spent fifty yearswhat happened so unforeseenthat their love alchemized into disgustand their religion into war? The mouthful that once cohered on their plateis now hemlock.Burning embers have replacedthe moistness of their tongue. All hope of justice from themis forever lost.The expression…
Issue 3, September 2022 : From the Chief Editor
Poetry at the Heart of the Nation, the journal of the Intercultural Poetry and Performance Library (IPPL), in its previous avatar was published in pdf form and uploaded to the IPPL website. While throughout the pandemic we, at IPPL, have been using poetry to stay connected, work on the Journal had been held up for…
Death in the Holy Month: A Review
Naina Dey Death in the Holy Month by Sufia Khatoon Hawakal Publishers, December 2018ISBN 978-93-87883-43-7, INR 300 Key words: death, love, loss, loneliness, desire The title could have come straight out of an Agatha Christie murder mystery. But when one delves inside there is a rush of passion in every line as the poet tries…
A Chair by the Window: A Review of Jharna Sanyal’s The Nomadic Trail: Seventy Poems
Amit Shankar Saha The Nomadic Trail: Seventy Poems by Jharna SanyalNew Delhi: Rubric Publishing, 2019, ISBN 978-81-938312-5-0, Pages 88, Price INR 300 Jharna Sanyal’s debut collection of seventy poems has a sort of accomplishment that one usually does not assume for a debutant. It is a book that delves deep into the psyche of a…
TATHAGATA BANERJEE
[M.A. (English), The Bhawanipur Education Society College, CU] Farewell… Almost I will be awake until the midnight sleeps, doing nothing…I’ll be reading the last words of a lost love letter…I’ll be busy thinking of the shameless idiotic tendencies of mine…In front of you… I’ll cling on to the last words of your text messages…The warmth…
Sangeeta Banerjee
[M.A. (English), University of Calcutta (College Street Campus)] Forever Free The sun lashes on her back, everyday,When she sells dreams on the money-laden streets.Mercy! Mercy! Shouted her soul,Pained but calm like the Christ on the Cross.She is nailed, everyday, by people, known and unknown.She knew that fear had a moustache and she heard heavy footsteps…
Sunwrita Dastidar
[B. A. (English Honours), Miranda House, University of Delhi] Sunflowers little girlyour little handsshould holdsunflowersnot the deadweightof my skin you follow mestep for stepswallowing my tearsmy bare, pulsing blooddo you not have a hometo return to? sunlight hitsthe mess of curlssunflowersflecked with browncan I drown in the seaof your big, dark eyes? little girltake me…
SANTASREE CHAUDHURI
“Tears of Blood!” The inauspicious 13th of 1919Innocent civilians were randomly killed on the holy day of BAISAKHIThe annual harvest festival of faith and galore turned into a history of atrocity and mass murder.It was a beautiful day, spring birds were getting ready to shake off the doldrums of winter,tuk tuk the sound was insistent…
Amita Ray, Madhu Sriwastav
Tribute to the Firebrand In the annals of Indian revolutionary nationalismIs carved many a nameTreading the bloody path to the altar of sacrifice.Among the unsung, unhailed, namesIs Pritilata Waddedar, the first woman martyrTo rise from the heart of Bengal. Blessed was our motherland on 5th May 1911When Pritilata saw the light of day,Her icon Rani…