‘এক বছরের শ্রেষ্ঠ কবিতা ১৯৭২’ : সময়ের বহুস্বর/ ‘Ek Bochorer Sreshtho Kobita 1972’ : The Polyphony of Time

Abstract

Although the waves of the Naxalbari movement - which began in 1967 - gradually spread across the entirety of West Bengal, the movement was effectively extinguished by 1972 due to the intensity of the administration's mass repression. The turbulent currents of this era inevitably washed over the poetry of those who had embraced social consciousness as the very foundation of their poetic ideals. The distinct imprint of the era's traumas and cries of anguish can be discerned in poetic works such as Birendra Chattopadhyay’s ‘Mundohin Dhorguli Ahllade Chitkar Kore’ and ‘Manushkheko Baghera Boro Laphay’, as well as Subhash Mukhopadhyay’s ‘Chele Geche Bone’. Yet, poetry does not merely bear the burden of the immediate present; with its other hand, it also reaches out to touch the vast expanse of the eternal, cosmic time. This analysis aims to demonstrate that during the Naxalbari movement and its aftermath, fostered by the proliferation of countless little magazines, Bengali poetry underwent a fundamental transformation-notably, a diverse convergence of voices that shattered its traditional metropolitan-centricity. We will argue that three primary tendencies defined the poetry of this period: the weariness of constantly bearing the scars of the present; the practice of internalizing the signs of the times - allowing them to circulate secretly within the very fabric of the poem rather than expressing them overtly; and the endeavor to transcend the immediate present through a retreat into tradition or introspection. In 1973, edited by Manindra Gupta and Ranjit Sinha, ‘Ek Bochorer Sreshtho Kobita 1972’ was published, featuring a selection of poems drawn from the myriad little magazines of the preceding year (1972). Subsequently, anthologies compiling the selected poems of each of the following five years were published in succession, continuing until 1976. Through a comprehensive analysis of the first of these anthologies— the volume dedicated to the poetry of 1972 - we shall trace the specific trends and tonal variations that characterized Bengali poetry during the nascent phase of the 1970s.