Deep underneath the monolith of Bengali canonical poetry, much read, rehearsed and appreciated, lies alternative, hushed voices that prefer to serve the muse in silence and secrecy. This is not exactly subaltern poetry, but the poets brought together in The Great Bengali Poetry Underground, an anthology published by the Singapore-based Kitaab, thrive on the periphery, preferring to remain in their psychic wilderness, content with publications in little magazines and often maintaining a distance from mainstream Bengali verse-writing – perhaps to sharpen the claws of their alternative perspectives.
I came across an excerpt from The Great Bengali Poetry Underground quite by accident while browsing the internet, and the flavour of these poems, as well as translator, Rajat Chaudhuri’s excellent introduction, immediately drew my attention. Chaudhuri has brought together ten poets from India and Bangladesh, from cities like Kolkata and Dhaka to villages in Bankura or…