Poetry
সারদামঙ্গল
Not translated into English
Biharilal Chakravarty · 1879
Synopsis
A lyric poem in five cantos, which opens with an invocation to the dawn. The poet calls upon Sarada, a figure of Sarasvati, the goddess of speech and learning, who at times becomes a beloved woman and at times slips away; he evokes the Sarasvatis of three ages, the one before Valmiki, the one of Valmiki and the one of Kalidasa. A letter to a friend opens the book, and the poet confesses in it the threefold separation from which the song was born: the loss of a friend, of a love, of the muse.
Context
The poem first appeared in the journal Aryadarshan, then in volume form in 1879. Its author, who had little schooling and had trained himself in Sanskrit, English and Bengali letters, transformed the traditional form of the lyric song so that it could carry deep feelings. Rabindranath Tagore, who regarded him as his master in poetry, judged the poem extraordinary, and his influence can be recognised in the early works of the young Tagore, in particular in his musical drama on Valmiki.
Who it is for
Five cantos of continuous lyricism, with no story to follow, steeped in references to Hindu mythology. No French or English translation.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as its author's most accomplished work; it influenced the Bengali lyric poets of the nineteenth century, Tagore first among them.
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