| Author | Jibanananda Das |
|---|---|
| Original title | বনলতা সেন |
| Translator | Various |
| Cover artist | Satyajit Ray |
| Language | Bengali |
| Subject | Love, nature, time, loss etc. |
| Genre | poetry |
| Published | Signet Press (1952) |
| Publication place | India |
| Pages | 49 (Signet Press 1952 edition), 44 (Calcutta Writers Workshop, 2000. English translation edition) |
| ISBN | 9788175957329 |
| OCLC | 49538244 |
Banalata Sen (Bengali: বনলতা সেন) is a poetry volume containing 31 poems by the Bengali poet Jibanananda Das (1899–1954).[1] The volume reflects the contextual struggles experienced by the poet in terms of love (his partner, admiration of nature), liberty (World War I, patriotism in the form of admiring the land) and loss (death of loved ones and sense of direction after traumatic contortions) during the Post-Tagore period.[2] This book has been named "Banalata Sen" after Das's most popular poem, which explored human fulfillment through the personification of a vaidya caste woman.[3] This pattern of progressively exploring human fulfillment through hyperbolising a character is common within this volume.[3]
During Das's lifetime Banalata Sen was published during Poush 1349 of the Bengali calendar (1942 AD) and in Srabon 1359 Bengali calendar (1952 AD). There is a variation in the poems within the volume as the later version contains poems that were written from 1942 to 1946.