LIKE MOTHER. LIKE DAUGHTER

Author and actor NANDANA DEV SEN had been translating the work of her mother, prolific Bengali poet Nabaneeta Dev Sen, for years. She talks to Shraddha Kamdar about doing it for her latest work - a book for a world audience

- Shraddha Kamdar

I started translating my mother's poems years ago, as an undergraduate at Harvard, and it was driven purely by necessity,' starts the talented Nandana Dev Sen. "Ma was often invited to give poetry readings, but little of her work was available in English." Little did she know that, one day, the dream of having her work published in that language would come true.

Having grown up in a home with three generations of poets in the poetry-loving city of Kolkata, Nandana admits that her mother took her and her sister to so many poetry meets that she used to complain as a child that they rarely went to the cinema or the zoo. In hindsight, she is grateful for the exposure.

A writer, child-rights activist and award-winning actor, Nandana has to her credit six children's books, translated into over 15 languages, but her latest, Acrobat (Juggernaut) is one that is closer to her heart than words can express.

It is a collection of the poems of her mother, the prolific Bengali poet, Padma Shri Nabaneeta Dev Sen, translated into English for a world audience. As thrilled as the ailing Nabaneeta had been about signing the contract for Acrobat, passed away two weeks later. Reminding herself every day that she was gone was tough for Nandana. "Working on Acrobat in the aftermath of losing Ma was overwhelming; I could hear her voice with every poem - she was so close, yet so far away," she says.