Acrobat Poems

An outstanding book of poetry Nabaneeta Dev Sen was one of the foremost Bengali writers of her generation—a poet, a novelist, a scholar, a humorist, a playwright. For the first time comes a translation of her poetry into English that gathers some of the deepest, most beautiful and revealing work she ever created. These luminous poems explore the joys and agonies of first love, motherhood, and decay with a restless, tactile imagination, both picking apart and celebrating the rituals that make us human. And it shows Dev Sen—a fiery feminist, formidable academic and political activist—at her most human, most intimate. Stunningly translated with lightness and lyricism by her daughter Nandana Dev Sen, this radiant collection is at once compassionate and unsparing, conversational and symphonic.