Lament of a lonely soul
Takir Hossain admires a celebration of love
1 February 2008, 18:00 PM
Prem O Bhalobashar Kobita
Mahadev Saha
Anyaprokash
Love is a symbol of truth and beauty and gives us insights into divine and spiritual life. Without love and affection, it is rather difficult to think about the existence of the soul in the body. Loving humankind and feeling empathy, delight and liberty are the four aspects of true love. Love is tranquil, quiet, honest, virtuous and based on conviction, esteem, confidence, support and truth. It does not have any room for jealousy, distrust, conceit, snobbery and unfairness. Love excuses all. Love happens when a wish is developed from an attraction, which leads to submission and then urges one to take the path to commitment. A deep attachment is felt for the person we love; we feel sensitive and are mesmerised by our love and thus seek devotion and regard. Love brings people together, as opposed to hate which separates people from one another. Love is refined and if allowed to flow naturally will smoothen the trail chosen after birth. Love makes life healthier and fuller. These constitute the essence of Mahadev Saha's poetry. Mahadev Saha is one of the leading romantic poets in our Bengali literary world. He is a poet of silence and mystery. Since the inception of his poetry, he has carefully kept himself removed from any disquiet and unsteadiness.
Mahadev Saha is dreamy and given to flights of poetic fantasy. Besides being a visionary, the poet has regularly tried to express his personal feelings and observations in romanticism. One will read Prem O Bhalobashar Kobita avidly; and out of that experience one can easily read the poet's mind and bore into his soul. It is true that the meaning of love differs from one individual to another. Expressions of love come to poetry, indeed hold it aloft, in various forms. The rendering of love is very clear in the poems Saha throws across his canvas of thoughts. His love for feminine beauty and natural objects comes in tandem with the frustrations and dissatisfaction associated with modern life. It is this very aspect that has added a degree of extra charm to the poems in this collection. He uses the imagery of the moon, moonshine, the sun, the sky and all shades and moods of clouds at random.
After a close perusal of Saha's poetry, though it is very difficult to trace the exact silhouette of the poet's mind, one is quite clear about the fact that he is a modernist in the complete sense of the meaning. His style is unquestionably unique, individualised and expressive. In his poems, one feels the lament of a lonely soul, an underlying sorrow, a feeling of emptiness but not without a tinge of hard realities and other realisations that one can call forth only from life itself.
In the work under review, there are altogether 320 poems that can give the readers a completely different taste and understanding of poetry as he appears with quite a new style in many senses. First of all, going through his poems, one must feel a world fluctuating amidst a variety of immense emotions and intense expressions. Again, confusion is also there in almost every poem confusion of happiness and the other way round. Readers will here come by an opportunity to enjoy a romantic's view of the many different areas of life. Evidently, the poet is a keen observer and wants to experience his surrounding ambience. He gives that ambience a dream-enveloped quality in the book. Most of the poems are a rich blend of theme and technique, the richness enhanced by the poet's skill in using myriad pictorial imagery, similes and metaphors. All of them are serious in mood and deep and reflective in an exposition of aesthetic feelings. One rather thinks these poems will be appreciated for their soothing nuance of language as well. Readers will take to the book for its cheerfully mind-boggling and amazing turns of phrase and terminology.
Mahadev Saha, like other modernist poets, pours out his profound, immensely blissful and delightful feelings through these verses. There are the many shades of meanings and ideas that underpin the poetry.
Takir Hossain is a journalist, art critic and reviewer.
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