Banalata Sen (Bengali: বনলতা সেন) is a Bengali poem written in 1942[1] by the poet Jibanananda Das that is one of the most read, recited and discussed poems of Bengali literature. The title of this lyric poem is a female character referred to by name in the last line of each of its three stanzas. A draft of the poem was also discovered that widely differs from the final version. Poet Jibanananda Das was a quiet person, who preferred to live in obscurity. Until the discovery of his diaries in the mid-1990s, it was considered unlikely that he could have been in love with a woman, with or without the name of Banalata Sen. However, Banalata Sen of Natore, a tiny town in the Rajshahi area of what was then Bengal, has become an emblem of feminine mystery as well as beauty and love.
- ^ George 1992, p. 88