Bookmarked Musings: The Window Through Which Poetry Is Seen

In this piece, Debashis Chakraborty explores the work of veteran Bengali poet Saptarshi Ray, specifically diving into the philosophy of his collection Shabdahin Satyer Barnamala (The Alphabet of Wordless Truth).

These lines might suddenly rush toward you like bullets, only to transform into butterflies and soar across the sky for a long time:

“The resistance against being worn out / The courage to step beyond the threshold. / In the audacity to emerge unique from nothingness / I have placed both hands on the turbulent waves of the sea.”

Yes, I speak of the firmament of poetry crafted by the veteran poet Saptarshi Ray. I refer to these irresistible lines from the poem Vrittanta (The Chronicle), which disrupts the orbit of his poetry collection, Shabdahin Satyer Barnamala (The Alphabet of Wordless Truth).