In this complex modern time, life is full of tension, loneliness, pain, despair, the strange face of people who are changing rapidly with industrialization and the suffering of capitalist society. In that poem, there is a desire for freedom from this life of betrayal and oppression. In the book ‘Hiranmoy Pakhi Man’, poet Elina Mita paints a picture of hopelessness, loneliness, despair, hope for liberation and nostalgia. English poet TS Eliot said, ‘Poetry is not the expression of emotion, but the coming out of emotion; It is not the expression of individuality, but the universalization of individuality. That is, even though there is emotion in the poem, the message expressed in the poem transcends time and space and reveals an extreme reality of life. Similarly, Sunil Gangopadhyay wrote, ‘The essence of poetry is truth, but poets are not the end of all lies?’ So some poets get immortality in one line even though they wander in emotions and imagination. In Elina’s poetry, a poetic expression of the constant truth of life has emerged in the rhythm and sound.
The term ‘modernity’ is relative to time. There is nothing absolute or extreme about modernity. In the case of Bengali poetry, it can be said that Rabindranath is modern in the judgment of his time. Again, Buddhadev Bose or many contemporary poets are also called modern. The characteristics of poetry have changed a lot since it emerged from the Victorian era, but the word ‘modernity’ is still evergreen. Although the theory of ‘post-modernity’ comes, poets and readers prefer to say ‘modern poetry’ to mean contemporary poetry. We therefore use the term modern poetry. TS Eliot is called the father of modern poetry. In his poem ‘The Waste Land’ published in 1922 after the First World War, he stood on the war-torn ruins and expressed his despair at the suffering of modern life. Many consider Michael Madhusudan Dutt as the father of modern poetry in Bengali literature. By composing sonnets, he broke the eight-six rhythm in fourteen measures and popularized the new rhythm of Bengali poetry by composing eighteen measures Mahapaya. Many consider Vishnu De or Jibanananda to be the father of modern poetry because he wrote poems about the strange changes in the mind and consciousness of the educated middle class of post-World War I Bengali society. Leaving aside this theoretical discussion of modern poetry, it can be said that modern poetry takes place in the heart of the reader by creatively and spontaneously presenting various issues of our daily life in rhythm, simile and wording.
Only the poet is emotional; A poet is only a person who finds love. And that is why all poets write love poems. There are love poems in the book ‘Hiranmoy Pakhi Man’; There is also the narrative of birah. In the poem ‘Pathe Holo Deri’, the reader will find the woman suddenly seen in Rabindranath’s train room, who surprised the reader and spoke; Looking with a happy smile on his face; Everyone came down after coming down; Asking in a strained voice, ‘The day we left, what has gone at all?’ The reader will feel the pain of losing love in the poem ‘Bauler Ektara’. ‘Do you write new songs? Kare Niya Bandla Go Baul?’ – This is like the eternal fear of losing love. Elina presents the love poems with great drama. The book has many other wonderful love poems including ‘Anurag Chhoya’, ‘Maina Pakhi’ ‘Nari O Prem’ ‘Ur Chiti’. If the love is intense, the fear of loss may be greater. The first poem of the book is called ‘Ekakittvo Gunjan’ where the poet writes, ‘When you are gone, how much spring, how much hearing/ He cried quietly./ How long I did not even remember you.’ In the poem ‘Ken Jai Na Bhola’, he wrote, ‘I miss you more than I forget very carefully.’ Some more such poems like ‘Tumi O Ami’, ‘Song of brokenness’, ‘Titty Kalorab’ and more poems can be mentioned where the reader will find Elina, one of the best poets among all.
TS Eliot, while writing about meaningless civilization and death in the poem ‘The Waste Land’, wrote in the poem ‘What the Thunder Said’, ‘Those who once lived, are now dead / We who now live, too, are slowly dying.’ Although many of the mysteries of the universe are clear to modern humans, death is still a mystery, which may even frustrate scientists. The reader will feel that desperation in poet Elina’s ‘Mrityuvoy’ poem. In the words of the poet, “The fear of death is instead of a pillow for the head!” Due to the instability of capitalism and changing values, people are now alone. Modern people are separate from groups. So a characteristic of modern poetry is loneliness. There are several poems of loneliness in the book ‘Hiranmoy Pakhi Man’. Elena writes in the poem ‘People are good from a distance’, ‘If you get close to people, it’s death. / Death of faith, death of dreams;’ Some poems like ‘Kheen Asha’, the river has dried up’ etc. have brought out the despair and loneliness of a meaningless life.
Kazi Nazrul Islam threatened the British Empire by writing ‘rebellious’ poems. Poetry has always roared in favor of deprived, helpless and poor people and against injustice. In today’s day-to-day life, instability, degradation, class division, lack of sympathy etc. are becoming more and more prevalent. Poets’ tools are their poems; In the poem, the poet claims to change the society; So betrayal comes up in the poem. Sunil said in his poem, ‘I wanted a new day, without shame, free to create youth. Poet Elina in her poem ‘Hemilon’s Flute’ says, ‘That flute, that tune, that Hemilon – / I seek. / Will remove all the lawlessness, tyranny ….’ Sukanta Bhattacharya sought the warmth of the sun for the naked boy on the roadside on a cold winter night and wrote, ‘O Surya! Winter sun! The cold long night waits for you/ we stay’; And Elina wrote in her poem ‘Ek Chillte Rod’, ‘When will the darkness of the night pass?/ When will the dawn come; Wait patiently! / A single chill of the sun can remove / the unbearable pain of this winter.’ Elena promises in the poem ‘Pledge to myself’, ‘To the next generation / I will leave a new world / This promise to myself.’ The poet further promises that he wants to work for a society where the society will be free from corruption, safe for all girl children, no mullahs and priest’s adharma. While reading this poem, the reader may hear Sukanta’s words, ‘I will make this world habitable for this child/ This is my firm promise to the newborn.’ Reading the poems of the book ‘Hiranmoy Pakhi Man’, the reader will feel that the poets are all united in drawing the dream of a beautiful world. Elina also waits together with everyone for the golden day when people will smile in the light of day without discrimination.
In the introduction of Hiranmoy Pakhi, the poet wrote, ‘In this book, I have written about my liberation, thoughts, emotions, suffering, and love.’ After reading the book, the reader will also agree with the poet. Being a socially conscious woman, poet Elina Mita has written in her books on the much discussed issues of women’s freedom, women’s empowerment, violence against women etc. In his poem ‘Mini’s Toy Box’, the reader will see how the little girl steps into the world to play with mini dolls and loses her whole world, how her dreams are crushed by the world’s machinery. In the words of the poet, ‘The toy box was all, was Minnie’s world, / Above all, Minnie seemed utterly destitute.’ The poem is like a narrative of thousands of girls in the society being sacrificed in the world. In the poem ‘Sharater Ek Sakal’, the reader will see the story of a raped flower seller becoming a corpse; The story of the struggle of Piari, an endangered woman who falls prey to the primal lust of dirty men of an insecure society. In the poem ‘Sabhayatay Shanka’, the poet writes how many other ways women are oppressed. In the poem, the reader will read the teenage girl’s teacher’s cry of fear of sexual harassment. In the poet’s words, ‘The body is my enemy, I don’t want to be a scholar.’ American literary critic Ellen Meyers said in her book ‘Literary Women’ that the writings of women writers depict the desire for domestic life, the fears and obstacles of women in a male-dominated society. If you look at it in that way, women’s words come up in Elina’s poetry more than any male poet. As a society conscious person, it is necessary to bring up the struggle of women in the writings of women writers. Elina fulfilled her social responsibility with extraordinary professionalism.
Patriotic poems have been written in all ages. Poets like Madhusudan, Rabindranath, Jeebananda wrote many poems about patriotism. In the Great War of Liberation, patriotic songs and poems inspired the freedom-loving people. The poetry of Jasimuddin, a famous rural poet, has been composed of the wonderful beauty of the countryside and the poetry of simple love. The country is also a very bright subject in the poems of Shamsur Rahman, Al Mahmud, Nirmalendu Guna etc. Elina wrote in the poem ‘Amar khinya’, ‘Our village floats on a green raft / The narrow path of the khairi rang finds the cottage. / … Mind is concave.’ As you read, the reader will wander around the small village surrounded by leaves. Elena wrote with great respect ‘I heard the best poetry of life / At that small time, in my father’s mouth. / Agun Jhara March poetry.’ In his poem ‘Father’s Eye Bangladesh’; While reading, the reader will feel as if her father had recited those immortal lines of Nirmalendu Guna to Elena … ‘The excitement of waiting for a poem to be written … when will the poet come?’ She also wrote the poem ‘Mahanayak’er Mahakavya’ in Elina’s book ‘Noishabdya Nizhsangata’ published in 2022 as a tribute to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Poet Elina’s patriotism is embodied in the poem ‘Kirtankhola river and I’, where the poet remembers the Kirtankhola river with great compassion; In the poem ‘Kapotaksha Nader Boba Kanna’, Elina cries over the plight of the country at the hands of land robbers. In this way, Elina has painted her country in a wonderful rhythm with the sweetness of her heart and extraordinary compassion.
The variety of poems in the book ‘Hiranmoy Pakhi Man’ and the munsiana of the wording of the poem are worth mentioning. The book is a pleasure to read because of its rhymes, rhymes, limericks, aphorisms and variety. The book is published by Chhash Swapna Prakashani, with a release date of April 2023. Cover drawn by Charu Pintu. The artist has painted some motifs from Gram Bangla and fairy tales on the cover. The cover is meaningful to convey the poetic expression of the poet’s diamond mind. Bachik artist and cultural activist Elina Mita has worked in multinational companies after passing honors and masters in English literature from Eden College and Dhaka University. He lives in Toronto. A total of three books of his poetry have been published including ‘Hiranmoy Pakhi Man’. He is associated with several organizations including Bangladesh Theatre, Udichi, Kanthachitran. In the preface of the book, poet Delwar Elahi has written, ‘Elina Mita has painted pictures of various thoughts in this book of her poetry. … His anxious waiting is for poetry.’ Elina also wrote in the poem ‘For poetry only’, ‘It is for poetry these days that I wander / in all literary meetings.’ Readers will feel Elina’s love, pursuit and adoration for poetry in the poems of ‘Hiranmoy Pakhi Man’. Congratulations to poet Elina Mita for this wonderful publication.
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Samina Chowdhury joined the teaching profession after obtaining a master’s degree in English literature from Jahangirnagar University. He also served in the Bangladesh UNESCO Commission while teaching in a government college. Joined Brac University in 2005. A total of nine peer reviews of Samina have been published at home and abroad. Samina, an immigrant to Canada since 2013, has been working in TD Bank’s customer care department for five years.
Toronto, Canada
