Celebrating Sudeep Sen

Sudeep Sen, poet, editor, translator and artist celebrates his 60th birthday today. The year also marks his 40 years as a published writer an article by poet Jhilam Chattaraj

Born to Satyabrata Sen and Ratna Sen, on August 9, 1964 — internationally acclaimed poet, editor, translator and artist Sudeep Sen celebrates his 60th birthday today. The year also marks his 40 years as a published writer. Sen is revered for his craftsmanship, innovation, experimentation and intelligence in poetry; and for his quiet and unstinting generosity towards building a larger poetry community.

I recently spoke to Sen to find out his thoughts on such a pivotal moment in his life. Sen says, “It has been a long innings with lots of runs, some dropped catches, many ups and downs — but I still remain not-out and raring to go! Along the way, so many have invisibly held my hand, nurtured me, inspired me, made me a better writer. Apart from my own writing, one of the biggest joys has been to support younger writers through mentorship, publication, teaching and editing anthologies. The latter was also an effort to put Indian poetry on a national and international map. I hope poetry has a healing effect in these fraught times, just as rain’s language — heals.”

In a Metaverse, where digital trends influence our writing, Sudeep Sen insists that poetry be a source of “perception” and “possibilities of language.” Sen’s hallmark lies in artfully narrating details; a skill we often ignore in the age of blunt and instant consumption. Sen’s words compel us to slow down; to cherish the smallest and brightest aspect of a poem and the larger world.

On Sudeep Sen’s 60th birthday, I explore 6 different aspects of his life and poetry — and also reproduce 6 poems from his forthcoming book, Red; the second book in ‘The Eco Trilogy’ alongside Anthropocene and Rock.

I

Sen and his Poetic Fervour

Sen has produced over 30 books in a published career spanning over 40 years, including poetry, prose-poetry, edited anthologies and translation. In an era when Indian literature is primarily represented by fiction and non-fiction (many adapted for lucrative film projects by OTT platforms), poetry often occupies the margins of literary attention. But Sen refuses to adhere to the romanticised, quiet spaces of poetry. The diverse range of his work both in writing and in praxis (readings, workshops, lectures, and collaborations) strives towards seizing the spotlight for poetry — after all, the first Indian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (1912) was poet and polymath, Rabindranath Tagore — a fellow Bengali like Sen.

II

Sen as a People’s Poet

Sudeep Sen is a people’s poet. It is not uncommon to see Sen engaged in long conversations with curious young readers in the audience and advising them to read, re-read, edit and re-edit their poems. Sen’s work has encouraged academics, scholars, and readers to create an exclusive spot for critical literature on Indian poetry in English. Chris Cook, the editor of The Penguin Pears Cyclopaedia, writes: “Sen [has] extended the range of Indian verse in English to encompass a variety of alternative views of language, history and culture.” Actor and artist, Tom Alter wrote in Biblio on Sen’s juxtaposition of art and literature: “Prayer Flag is a unique object of art that reveals two intrinsically linked artistic sides of Sen’s work and talent: words and images. Perfection of musicality, tone and cadence is tuned to produce the finest resonance … a gift to treasure from a master artist.”

III

Sen and Anthologies

Sudeep Sen has edited several notable anthologies such as The HarperCollins Book of English Poetry, World English Poetry (Bengal Foundation), Modern English Poetry by Younger Indians (Sahitya Akademi), Best Asian Poetry (Kitaab), Converse: Contemporary English Poetry by Indians, (Pippa Rann, 2022), among others. Anthologies reflect, Sen’s desire to represent poetry as a collective process; and to represent the nation through poetry.

Sen’s anthologies, despite being judiciously chosen on merit, are largely celebratory. They were published to commemorate key historical moments in India. Each anthology recognizes Sen’s commitment to enhancing poetry’s impact on society, culture and language. Not only do they provide an alternative narrative history about the country, but they also lend poets a feeling of purpose; a sense of belonging to a community of people who devote time and effort to an age-old profession without expecting much in return.

IV

Sudeep Sen as an Editor

Sudeep Sen is also a well-known photographer with a remarkable eye for detail; his work depicts the subject’s micro politics. Can Sen’s writing and editing be truly separated?

Sen has often paraphrased and reiterated French poet Paul Valery’s words, “A poem is never finished, only abandoned3.” Sen’s experience with editing is painfully rigorous as explained in several interviews. Editing translated poems requires a non-negotiable allotted period and labour. Sen is unflinching in the translation of cadence, rhythm, and lineation: he often reads himself and makes others read the same work till the poem reaches a satisfactory level of performance both in terms of form and content. As an editor, critic and literary reviewer, Sen is required to read works by others — ‘new writing every day’ which is often inspiring and uplifting. These experiences enrich his life as a traveller, literary editor and writer. Sen’s passion for writing enabled him to carve out a professional space as an editor. Sen attempted to compose fiction in his early years, but he ended up editing his stories to such an extent that they turned into poetry.

V

Sen and Ekphrastic Poetry

An ekphrastic poem is a vivacious description of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art through the imaginative act of narrating, reflecting or reimagining the “action” of a painting or sculpture. The poet may amplify and expand its meaning. Sudeep Sen’s writing career has been focused on creating compelling communication with art. His poetry is transdisciplinary. Poems frequently use light, music, movement, water, colour, texture, and other elements to engage readers in discussions with the written word. Blue Nude is one of his best-known sequences of ekphrastic poetry. Sen’s efforts with ekphrastic poems serve as a means of rekindling the fire within, which was ignited by another artist’s work.

Blue Nude is based on the series of Matisse’s cut-outs. The poems do not attempt to reframe Matisse’s point of view. They reflect the same frame of view, but Sen uses a different palette and equipment to produce them. Sen employs words, as Matisse uses paper shapes. The poems form parallel dialogues with the original work of art.

VI

Sen: A Map of Harmony —

Bankura, New Delhi, New York, London, Dhaka, Delhi

In many of my conversations, and on the page — I have come across Sudeep Sen, a youngster cycling across Delhi’s broad avenues, playing hide and seek among the monument-ruins of the Qutub Minar, and longing for the shade of the Banyan tree in his ancestral home of Bankura in Bengal. I met also Sudeep Sen, a restless Columbia University student who, unintentionally, enjoyed the company of Joseph Brodsky and Seamus Heaney at a New York City reading. Sudeep’s days of hard work under the guidance of poet Derek Walcott were also mentioned in various interviews.

Sudeep Sen, later a London-based poet, navigates the traditional circles of English poetry. Sen’s poetry is rooted in his ethnic heritage, including his Bengali love of fish and rice and as a Delhi-ite craving for chole kulche. Sen’s poetry, however, is global and local, political and personal, lyrical and tightly-wrought — a product of a well-travelled soul who met poets and writers and explored the literature in every city he visited. Like Rabindranath Tagore, Sudeep Sen is deeply involved in poetry’s multidisciplinary functions. He is a translator, photographer, editor and reviewer — and he spends his time responding to and engaging with the works of other poets and artists. The primary goal of his writings has been to foster a sense of harmony — a thriving, collaborative artist’s community.

Conclusion

In recent years, Sen’s poetry has explored the harmony of man’s relationship with the planet. Sen’s “eco trilogy” — Anthropocene, Red and Rock — visualise a world where man is no longer the supreme being. Sudeep Sen’s journey from his first book, The Lunar Visitations (1990), who as a young boy would sometimes dramatically dismiss his poetry — to a creatively agile man, determined to usher a fresh stream of semiotic clarity and preciseness in global and Indian poetry in English. Now, Sudeep Sen is a seasoned poet, a generous figure standing like a tower— continuing to preserve the fecund and sacred spaces, for nurturing literature and language, poetry and humanity.