Jibanananda Das

Jibanananda Das (1899-1954) was a famous Bengali poet.

Biography

Born in Barisal, Jibanananda was educated in Barisal BM College and Calcutta Presidency College. He then worked as a teacher of English in Kolkata, Bagerhat and Delhi before returning to Barisal. After the partition of India in 1947, he moved to Kolkata, where he died in 1954 in a traffic accident.

Literary style

Jibanananda is best known for his celebration of the natural beauty and the rural life of Bengal, although his work is shot through with an acute awareness of the evanescence of the soul, of death and decomposition. His poems have a lyrical beauty that have very few parallels in Bangla literature, and to many, his stature as a poet is second only to Tagore.

Major works

• Jhora Palok (Fallen Feathers, 1927)
• Dhushor Pandulipi (Gray Manuscript, 1936)
• Bonolota Sen (1942)
• Mohaprithibi (Great Universe, 1944)
• Shaat-ti Tarar Timir (1948)
• Ruposhi Bangla (Beautiful Bengal, written in 1934, published in 1957)
• Bela Obela Kalbela (1961) (Times, Bad Times, End Times)