Arun Mitra
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Arun Mitra (Bengali: অরুণ মিত্র) (b. November, 1909 in Jessore, now in Bangladesh - d. August, 2000 in Kolkata, India, was a Bengali Indian journalist.
Arun moved to Kolkata when he was a young boy and did most of his schooling there. In college he was very fascinated by the life sciences, although he was officially a student of English. At that time he was also writing a lot of poetry and reading his way through his new-found love-- French literature.
After college, Arun Mitra became a successful journalist in the Bengali daily Ananda Bazar Patrika which at that time was edited by Satyendranath Majumdar, a prominent Bengali journalist-writer of that time. Arun's colleagues included the playwright Bijon Bhattacharya, and the novelist Subodh Ghosh. In 1937 Arun Mitra married Shanti and together they lived with Satyendranath who also happened to be Shanti Mitra's uncle. Shanti herself was an important short fiction writer.
In collaboration with Satyendranath, Arun edited Arani a progressive literary magazine which spearheaded the anti-fascist writers' movement in Bengal and where many of the stalwarts of Bengali literature were first published. Throughout the period that spanned World War II and the partition of India (into India and Pakistan), Arun Mitra remained a staunch advocate of freedom and sanity-- as poet, journalist and writer. This commitment to humanity was the driving force of his life.
In 1948, Arun Mitra was awarded a scholarship by the French government to do his doctoral work at the Sorbonne, and Arun went reluctantly as he was not happy to leave Shanti and their two children behind. In Paris, Arun befriended the historian Ranajit Guha and the painter Paritosh Sen and also spent time with Aldous Huxley and French poets like Paul Eluard and Louis Aragon. After his return to India, Arun joined the faculty at Allahabad University and taught there until his retirement. He was always a poet first, and during his Allahabad years published much, including his only novel and translations of various French poets and writers-- from Rimbaud to Sartre, from Voltaire to St. John-Perse.
The Mitras finally settled once again in Kolkata, living most of the rest of their lives in Tiljala, a poor and working-class neighborhood of the city. It was in Tiljala that Arun Mitra produced his best work and brought a decidedly new direction to Bengali poetry. Throughout their lives, people from all walks of life and across many generations befriended Shanti and Arun Mitra. Arun's fame actually made him more accessible to ordinary people, and along with them he mourned Shanti's passing in 1998 in several of his last poems about his "fallen fellow-warrior".
Two days before he died, Arun Mitra said his head was full of poetry that must be spoken, and dictated some lines, his last poem, to a young publisher friend.
Arun Mitra's work: An Incomplete Bibliography
(This does not include numerous essays, reviews, news articles, commentaries, translations, recorded and/or published interviews that are not contained in the publications listed here. English translations of titles are literal in most instances. Transcription of Bengali titles try to represent, as much as possible, the Bengali vernacular and not Sanskrit pronunciation of words.)
Poetry
Prantorekha [Horizon Line] Arani Publication, Kolkata. 1943
Utser Dikey [Toward the Source] Dipankar Publication, Kolkata. 1955
Ghonishto Taap [Intimate Warmth] Tribeni Publishers, Kolkata. 1963
Mancher Bairey Matitey [Beyond the Stage On the Earth] Saraswat Publication, Kolkata. 1970
Shudhu Raater Shabdo Noi [Not Just the Rustle of the Night] Nabopatro Publication, Kolkata. 1978 (Winner, Rabindranath Tagore Award)
Prathom Poli Shesh Pathor [First Silt Last Stone] Karuna Publication, Kolkata. 1981
Khunjtey Khunjtey Eto Door [So Far After Searching So Long] Pratikhshan Publication, Kolkata. 1986 (Winner, Sahitya Akademi National Award)
Jodio Agun Jhor Dhasha Danga [Although a Bank Ravaged by Firestorm] Pratikhshan Publication, Kolkata. 1988
Ei Amrito Ei Garol [This Nectar This Venom] Proma Publication, Kolkata. 1991
Tunikathaar Gherao Thekey Bolchhi [I Speak Surrounded by Small Talk] Anushtup Publication, Kolkata. 1992
Khara Urboray Chinho Diye Choli [I Put My Signature on Drought and on Plenty] Pratikhshan Publication, kolkata. 1994
Andhokaar Jatokkhon Jegey Thakey [As Long As Darkness Remains Awake] Ananda Publishers, Kolkata. 1996
Ora Uritey Noi [Not In Random Flight] Kobita Pakhshik, Kolkata. 1997
Bhangoner Mati [Eroding Soil] Dey's Publishing House, Kolkata. 1998
Uchchhanno Shomayer Shukh Dukkho Ghirey [Surrounded By Joy and Sorrow of a Wayward Time] Ananda Publishers, Koklkata. 1999
Collections (Poetry)
Arun Mitrer Sreshtho Kobita [Best Poems of Arun Mitra] Bharobi Publication, Kolkata. 1972
Arun Mitrer Sreshtho Kobita [Best poems of Arun Mitra] Narbaak Publication, Kolkata. 1985
Kabya Shamagro, Vol. I [Collected Poems] Protibhas Publication, Kolkata. 1988
Kabya Shamagro, Vol. II [Collected Poems] Protibhas Publication, Kolkata. 1992
Bulaar Raagmala [Bula's Garland of Raags] Proma Publication, Kolkata. 1994
Nirbachito Premer Kobita [Selected Poems About Love] Bikash Gronthaboli, Kolkata. 1994
Panchsho Bachhorer Pharashi Kobita [Five Hundred Years of French Poetry] Translation of various French poets Proma Publication, Kolkata. 1994
Shwanirbachito Sreshtho Kobita [Best Poems-- selected by the poet] Abhijat Publication, Kolkata. 1999
Arun Mitrer Sreshtho Kobita [Best poems of Arun Mitra] Dey's Publishing House, Kolkata. 1999
Narratives
Shikawr Jodi Chena Jai [If Roots Are Known] Bengali novel Karuna Publication, Kolkata. 1979
Candide, Ba Ashabad [Candide, or Optimism] Translation of Voltaire Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. 1970
Collections (Prose)
Pharashi Shahitto Proshongey [On french literature] Critical essays Proma Publication, Kolkata. 1985
Srijan Shahitto Nanaan Bhabna [Creative Literature Various Thoughts] Protibhas Publication, Kolkata. 1987
Aragon [Aragon] On Louis Aragon: Critical/Biographical Proma Publication, Kolkata. 1991
Khola Chokhey [With Eyes Open] Proma Publication, Kolkata. 1992
Pather Morey [At the Crossroads] Remembering writers, artists, friends Proma Publication, Kolkata. 1996
Kobir Katha, Kobider Katha [About Poet and Poets] Essays on poetry and individual poets Kobita Prakhshik, Kolkata. 1997
Kobita Ami O Amra [Poetry Myself and We] Essays on Bengali and french literature Dey's Publishing House, Kolkata. 1999
Jibaner Rangey [In the Color of Life] Memoirs Abhijit Publication, Kolkata. 1999
On Arun Mitra (Selected)
Kobi Arun Mitra [The Poet Arun Mitra] Collection of critical essays, analyses, commentaries edited by Shankha Ghosh and Arun Sen Parichay/Anushtup, Kolkata. 1986
Arun Mitra (in English) by Abanti Sanyal "Makers of Indian Literature" series Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. 2003