English Grammar
English Grammar
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/iiucs.v13i0.37648
Abstract
Surrealism expresses the working of the subconscious, as manifested in dreams and
uncontrolled by reason and characterized by the incongruous and startling arrangement
and presentation of subject matter. The theme of Jibanananda's poem ‗Banalata Sen' is
straightforward. However, because of the style of presentation, it appeared to be subtle,
mysterious and bizarre even to the native readers and critics of his time. The poet's
wizardry of image and metaphor makes an ordinary Banalata Sen beyond touch as she
transcends to a higher space, surpassing all worldly affairs. The poet presents her beauty in
entirely different imagery infrequent in our literature before his utterance. Throughout the
poem, he creates a sense of wonder and dreamlike progression from the flow of time
expressed by ancient civilizations and illusory natural beauty to the contemplation of the
end of earthly affairs. With a view to establishing Jibanananda's ‗Banalata Sen' as a
surrealist poem, this article aims at exploring the images and metaphors that has unfolded
his subliminal working of the mind.
Keywords Surrealism, Bizarre images, Roaming, Reverie, Darkness, Dream, Rest and respite
Paper type Literature review
(Das 2014:141)
For a thousand years I have walked the ways of the world,
From Sinhala‘s Sea to Malaya‘s in night‘s darkness,
Far did I roam. In Vimbisar and Ashok’s ash-grey world
86 IIUC STUDIES, 13
The writer, as we find in the lyric, has gone far and wide, yet nothing
could vanish his exhaustion. It is just when he encounters Banalata Sen,
he feels peace. Jibanananda gives open chain to his creative energy
represented by his movements to antiquated and remote spots of
incredible excellence and fascination. After his mission, he finds only
‗life's frothy ocean' (Das 2014:141). This perception ultimately brings him
back to Bengal, especially, to Banalata Sen; then the poet makes it specific
and real, adding the name of Natore. Soon after this rootedness that
instils into him the memories of Bengal is replaced with otherworldly
feelings and striking sensation. When he portrays Banalata Sen, he draws
comparison utilizing pictures which offer an overwhelming impression of
the individual. As the speaker encounters her, she says, "Where have you
been so long? And raised her bird's-nest-like eyes—Banalata Sen from
Natore" (Das 2014:141). This image comes out brilliant and suggestive.
Jibananada's drawing parallel of Banalata Sen's ‗bird's-nest-eye' image is a
mingling of imagination and intellectualism. It has opened a gateway to
the surrealistic domain where an exotic touch to the commonplace things
makes us perceive the unexpectedness and weirdness in the ordinary.
In Jibanananda's "Banalata Sen" the influence of surrealism and
impressionism is revealed very clearly at the very beginning of the poem.
Surrealism is vigorous spontaneity with which thoughts are free from all
restrictions, such as preoccupation with rationality. It reaches the centre
point of the mind where past and present, death and life, real and
imaginary—all opposing forces drop their antipathy. In ‗ Banalata Sen'
the Poet's hyperbolic expression of roaming the world for thousands of
years or entering ancient India during the reign of Ashoka releases the
readers' mind from rationality. Being influenced by Freud, the poet
suspends the conscious self that makes known all abstract aspirations and
sense of wonder. The poet combines several techniques depicting various
aspects of life and civilizations. He steps forward to the end of life after
passing over the history and heritage of thousands of years. During his
journey, he encounters mystery, exhaustion, relief and fatigue. The poet as
we see in the poem has travelled ancient and remote places of great
splendour and magnificence. However, with the passage of time, he
perceives the entrenched emptiness that is filled with an overwhelming
and undiscovered truth. After passing various prairies, the enthusiasm of
ocean and mountain, beauty and truth of the heritage, he has got a sigh of
relief in Banalata. The poet abolishes all the barriers between
consciousness and the subconscious, inner self and outer reality.
Reading Banalata Sen 87
After passing Maloyan ocean, Oshoka, the ancient Indian king and
Bimbisers as well as the ancient city Bidhharva, all of a sudden, the poet
becomes surrealist; he combined the beauty of thick black hair of Banalata
incoherently with the images from old and lost civilization, and this
bizarre and far-fetched comparison creates surrealistic vibes. Association
of the beauty of hair and face with "Vidisha city's night" and "art work of
sravasti' surpasses everyday commonplace reality and usual timeframe.
Exhaustion and dreamlike atmosphere are inter-related. Sense of nuisance
and inertia bring about a tendency to escape in an ideal land. On the one
hand, comparing himself with "ship-wrecked mariner who has lost of
land", the poet emphasizes his weariness, and on the other, he creates a
sense of wonder and beauty of a dark and ancient civilization.
Here the languid and trancelike situation is created after colossal
exhaustion and fatigue as the speaker says "the sea of life is lathered".
Worn-out with the madding crowd he is now a "weary spirit" that finds
transitory peace in Banalata Sen. He creates a surrealistic tone with the
sense of wonder and beauty of dark ancient civilization. This beauty is
enhanced with the natural image of "green grass in Cinnamon Island".
Then there is a turn from surrealistic world to reality as a conversational
note appears "That way I saw her in darkness, said she "Where've you
been?".(Das 2014:141)
Though all these happened in reverie, the poem seems at the point
indistinct as the poet adds a title to Banalata along with the name of her
birthplace, Natore. Ambiguity occurs, as he adds the title and the name of
the place, as well as he creates a dreamy land of natural beauty with some
sprawling images. Combining bizarre image with a conversational tone, he
mystifies the reader. At this point Reader's mind keeps swinging and
wavering for the quest of unfathomable Banalata.
In his poem "Banalata Sen" the impact of surrealism and
impressionism is clear as throughout the poem its spontaneous flow of
poet's subconscious and the use of weird imagery make the reader free from
logic. Quietude, tranquility and dreamlike ambience characterize the whole
poem. In ‗Banalata Sen' being fed up with fret and fever of the outside
world, the poet escapes into the dream world by the power of the sub-
conscious mind. After journeying and roaming ancient and remote places,
his tired soul is craving for Banalata Sen. He employs unconventional
images and dreamlike metaphor to illustrate his imaginative journey and
beauty of Banalata that exert etheral and surrealistic feeling and exotic
sensation. However, the poem quickly turns from surrealism to real and
mundane world as Banalata Sen is identified with Bangel and more
specifically she belongs to Natore of Bengal. In the final stanza, his brilliant
use of bizarre and evocative images again takes us to a surrealistic domain
where melancholy hovers as the speaker substantiates the end of the day
with hallucinatory and tangible images. Throughout the poem, his use of
88 IIUC STUDIES, 13
the image is very significant: especially in the first and second stanza the
visual images like ‗the grey world of Ashoka', ‗life's frothy ocean', 'srabostir
karukarja' or "bird nest like eyes". In the third stanza, we find a synesthetic
image, a kind of experience of one's senses being cross-wired or it is the
kind of imagery in which the sensory aspects are atypical and somewhat
cross-sensory. For example, the image ‗the scent of sunlight' is cross-wired;
sense of touch can feel the heat of sunlight and its brightness is visual. But
here we feel it through our sense of smell. The presentation of the image
becomes complex as the poet says," A hawk wipes the scent of sunlight
from its wings". The scent is airy; like the color, it cannot be wiped out. But
the poet has presented it in such a way the images are visual. Another
example of synesthesia is when the poet says, ‗prithibir shob rong nibhe
gele....' Here colour has been attributed the quality of light that can be out.
Colour can be faded, washed away or wiped out, but cannot be put out like
the light. In the final stanza, the poet creates such synesthetic atmosphere
where all the senses surpass their limits and able to experience something
new. Irrationality and novelties replenish our mind as the usual role of five
senses alternates. At the end of the poem when the poet describes darkness
as it descends on the Earth, he returns to Banalata Sen, his sanctuary.
(Das 2014:141)
All birds home- rivers too, life's mart close again;
What remains is darkness and facing me – Banalata Sen! (Alam 2004:22)
transaction of worldly affair terminates. The poem that starts with the
poet's continuous roaming ends with a note of stillness. Though the last
part of the poem is suggestive of the end of life, the poet implies nothing
beyond death. But a death like stillness is prevailing when all activities
with the impending tranquil evening come to an end, and all the colours
are wiped out due to the impending darkness. This is a world apart that
reminds us of Robert Frost's yearning for last sleep stated in his poem
"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening". Frost expresses his desire for
sleep after finishing the worldly affairs whereas Jibananada has already
reached a dreamlike respite completing all the transactions of life.
Darkness and weariness are prevailing in the last stanza of the poem
where the poet makes an incoherent and surrealist world that is evocative
of the end of life. However, beneath the apparent incoherence and
inconsistency, meaning lies. His sense of fatigue and craving for rest turn
to inebriated obsession. Now he seems to be under the spell of delirium,
at what time he feels she is approaching silently like dew-drop falling.It is
a motionless world where remain only prevailing darkness, appalling
silence and sitting passionately face to face.
In his poem, the colourful natural beauty connecting subtle
perceptions creates a thread of thought that is given fullest expression.
Skillfully applying the words and combination of various colours of
natural beauty creates artistic emotion with sensory perception.
Impressionism poles apart from realism and is based on intellect and
common emotion. Impressionism, however, in its sensuousness keeps
itself aloof from reality creating a new atmosphere with the mental
impression and subtle perception about the beauty of the material. To the
impressionists, the word twilight is very significant. This transitional
period between day and night when mingling of light and darkness
prevails, the poet paints a domain of his own where realism is suspended,
and the mental impression is invigorated with all powerful perceptions
displaying darkness and colour image:
(Das 2014:141)
At the end of the day, with soft sound of dew,
Night falls; the kite wipes the sun‘s smell from its wings;
The world‘s colour fade;fireflies light up the world a new;
(Alam 2004:22)
With the darkness and colour image like grey and green, the poet
creates a visual description of his imaginary domain. Darkness throughout
90 IIUC STUDIES, 13
the poem evokes subjective and sensory impression rather than objective
reality. Darkness prompting and mystifying the reader's imagination, calls
for individual and subjective interpretation. The poet has roamed much
"the dark seas of Malaya". Then he has been in "darkness of Vidarbha".
He "remembers her hair dark as night at Vidisha". Even the poet sees her
in the midst of "Cinnamon island" that is also dark. Eventually, only
darkness remains, and Banalata sen appears visible through the darkness.
The poet takes the reference of "light of fireflies" that only deepens the
darkness. The poet gives impressionistic touch by aesthetic experience
comprising some visual beauty inherent in things. Subjectivity is the way
the mind looks at the combination of things in the viewer's perspective.
His artistic vision captures the light inherent in the things. An impression
is a complex feeling created by a thing of beauty that is unique to the
individual experience and subjective interpretation.
The association between impressionism and surrealism is that both are
initiated from subjectivity and go beyond the edge of rationality. These two
approaches mingling in the poem ‗Banalata Sen' give it extra zest. The poet
has reached a land of trance and obsessed himself in the grey domain of lost
Indian civilization where Banalata turns to intangible and idyllic like history
and lifeless like ancient sculpture. She is such a woman whom we cannot
find in Natore or cannot have physically; she is such a woman with whom
the poet can sit face to face in the darkness. She is a picture, not a physical
being to be touched. Being exhausted by tiresome frequentation of reality,
he escapes into an ideal land where he constitutes his dream.
In fact, all these happened in a reverie. Banalata is not a lifelike
character; she can be found only in contemplation. Through the image
and metaphor, Banalata appears to be sensuous and embodiment of
romantic essence. The exhausted poet finds shelter in her "birds nest like
eyes" (Das 2014:141). This enthralling image reflects the mood of the
poet. The exhausted poet is craving for respite and silence. His passion
for peace and serenity is expressed through an objective correlative, "birds
nest like eyes". Though the comparison between eyes and birds nest is
apparently far-fetched, a profound meaning can be traced as the bird's
nest signifies peaceful shelter of a bird. This incoherent image of "bird's
nest like eyes" captures the dominant tone of the poem: rest and respite.
This image expresses modernist desire to escape. The mood is gloomy
and haunting. It is endowed with an alienated heart frequently seeking safe
haven in the heart of a woman. He also introduces modern conversational
speech pattern in his subject. However, immediately after his use of
image, he makes an immaculate, and imaginary woman that substantiates
the working of the subconscious mind and his voice seems as if he were
whispering wistfully.
Though the modern poet shows interest in employing urban element
in their poetry, Jibananda forms a close relation between his poetic
Reading Banalata Sen 91
fantasy. Vigorous perception and intense appeal for beauty put forth
surrealistic ambience and this way the poem "Banalata Sen" turns out to
be an emblem of fantasy and sense of wonder.
References
Alam, F. (2004). Trans. ―Banalata Sen‖. In S. Habib (Ed.), Banalata Sen: Shat
Bochorer Path (p.22). Dhaka: Subarna Printers.
Alom, Z. (2013, November 11). Jibanananda's thoughts on death, surrealism and
beyond. The Daily Star. Retrieved from https://www.thedailystar.net/news-
detail-207451
Anwar, A. (2009, December 18). Surrealism: From French to Bangla literature.
The Daily Star. Retrieved from https://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-
118252
Basu, B. (2004). Banalata Sen: Kabbo Gronther Alocona. In H. Saikot (Ed.),
Banalata Sen: Shat Bochorer Path, (pp.75-77). Dhaka: Subarna Printers.
Rahman, M. (Ed.). (2014). Sreshtho Kabita Somogro: Jibanananda Das (2nd ed.).
Dhaka, Bangladesh: Rabeya Book House.
Falguli, A. (2010, February 3). Jibonananda Das: Poet of Autumnul Dew. The
Daily Star. Retrieved from http://archive.thedailystar.net/newDesign/cache/cached-
news-details-159509.html
Habib, S. (Ed.). (2004). Banalata Sen: Shat Bochorer Path (2nd ed.). Dhaka,
Bangladesh: Subarna Printers.
Hopkins, D. (2004). Dada and surrealism: a very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Mitra, M. (1986). Adhunik bangla kabitay europio provab. Kolkata: Dey‘s Publishing.
Ray, A. (2016, May 23). Understanding Jibananda‘s different poetic sensibility.
Parabaas. Retrieved from
https://www.parabaas.com/jd/articles/arunima_poeticsensibility.shtml
Tripathi, D. (1958). Adhunik bangla kabbo porichoy. Kolkata: Dey‘s Publication.
Corresponding author
Sultana Jahan can be contacted at: [email protected]