The Cry of the Tiger

[Subhas Mukhopadyay born in 1919 struck a new chord in modern Bengali poetry with his line composed on the eve of the Second World War, challenging the cor'-nntional romantic imagery and asserting his political commitment—"My love, it's not the time for playing with flowers, we are face to face with destruction." Since then, Subhas-da, as he is fondly known in Calcutta's literary circles, has travelled a long way. The revolutionary march-beat of his poems composed during his active involvement with the communist movement in the 1940s 1950 period, has given way to the gentle metre and wistful refrain of a poem composed in the late 1950s beginning with the line—"Whether flowers bloom or not, it is spring today". This reflects the poet's desperate urge to discover spring in today's withered political desert.]