There was a lot of promise in this collection but the translation lacked precision and it was very evident. I also think if some poems were cut out of the collection, it would've been more cohesive and impactful.

I would like to thank the publisher of Acrobat for providing me for an Advanced Reader Copy through NetGalley.
I enjoyed reading these heart warming poems about what it means to be a woman. The love in the relationship between the mother and the daughter was evident and touching. I found them a bit too lyrical for my taste but I would recommend this poetry for its sweet way of representing girlhood, womanhood and love.

Acrobat is the “Dream Project” of the mother/daughter team, Nabaneeta and Nandana Dev Sen. It is a collection of Nabaneeta’s (mother’s) poems, most of which have been translated from the Bengali into English by Nandana (daughter). Rich imagery defines the best poems in the book. There are some brief, powerful metaphors that cut deeply into the human heart. Other poems seem to get a bit lost in translation. They have the feel of a puzzle or an inside allusion which results in a distancing effect on the reader.

The collection ends with a letter from daughter to mother which shows Nandana’s poetic aptitude. We learn a bit of the backstory of the mother’s biography and the germination of the project itself. The letter serves and a satisfying conclusion.

Thank you to Nabaneeta and Nandana Dev Sen, Archiplelago Books, and NetGalley for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

Acrobat is insight and beautiful verse. A collection well worth savoring from a master of words and poetic method.

3 stars

Poems on motherhood, friendship, loss, & identity, translated by the daughter of the writer (a few were originally written in English). Some of the poems have striking turns of phrase & imagery, & have a heartfelt depth to them; some of the poems are vague or clichéd, thus the mediocre rating.

[What I liked:]

•There is nice variety represented in this collection: long poems & short ones, many different themes, some rhyme while others are in free verse.

•In the poems I liked, such as “Acrobat” & “The Shell”, there is both vivid use of language & creative metaphor.

•I really appreciated in particular the poems on the theme of aging, “The Lamp” & “These Beloved Faces”. They hold so much poignancy & yearning.


[What I didn’t like as much:]

•Several of the poems are very short, rather trite, & without much to say. I’m not sure why they were included alongside the other poems that demonstrate more depth & skill.

•Some of the poems, especially the shorter-medium length ones, I’m not really sure what they were about. For example, “Poison”: it gives me two vivid images, a pillow & the moon, & speaks of poison going to attack the speaker. I’m not sure how the concepts are related though. Perhaps it’s a metaphor or allusion that would make more sense in the original language? If that’s the case, I think footnotes would really help. I feel like something important is lost in translation/my cultural ignorance for some of these poems that I really want to understand.

[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]

I loved everything about this small gem! It was everything I wanted to restore my faith in the genre after continuously having slightly bitter experiences with "modern" poetry.

There were so many pieces that sung to my heart, honestly, it took me off guard with how good and raw they were. Nandita's translations of her mother's poetries are really good and even though I can't compare them with originals, they are evocative and stirring on their own. However, the eloquence of some pieces, I feel, was lost in translation.

It's easily one of the collections I'd love to revisit in the future!💖

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publishers for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This posthumous collection, sensitively translated by the poet’s own daughter, was the last project Dev Sen completed before her death in 2019. The pieces are wide-reaching in theme, with some particularly evocative lines throughout that reflect the landscape of India, and the differing worldview of men and women due to cultural roles. Beyond this, there’s a strong focus on womanhood in general, and Dev Sen’s experiences as a mother, as well as pieces on love, loss, language, memory, and so on.

With that said, I felt the collection would have benefitted from a more coherent thematic focus. There are several very short poems peppered throughout that felt stylistically jarring when held up against the flair of the other pieces. Take for example this lovely line from one of my favourites in the collection, which talks about the elusive nature of language, and the contrasting beauty and frustration felt throughout the writing process: “Words stand aloof / like the false modesty, many hued, of a setting sun that leans against the sky – / unattached, unreachable, alone / yet gently touching the earth’s tamed mane with caressing fingers.” Compare that to the piece entitled, “Unspoken”, which in its entirety simply reads: “Each time you say, ‘Forever, forever,’ / I only hear, / ‘Today, today!’” These strangely youthful sounding, angsty pieces read more like Instagram captions, and without wishing to sound flippant, the cutting of these “filler” pieces would have allowed the strongest poems the breathing space they needed to shine.

All-in-all, I admired this collection for its intent, but ultimately found the poetic voice too inconsistent, and thus failed to connect emotionally.

Thank you to the publisher for a free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Acrobat by Nabaneeta Dev Sen is a poetry collection on life's joys and pains, including poems on love, loss, uncertainty, memory, and wonder. These earthy poems calm the soul and warm the heart, bring back memories and prompt the imagination.

A few of my favorite poems were:

-Friend
-Unspoken
-That Girl
-Grief: Rainy-Day Rhymes
-Too Much
-And Yet
-In Marriage

Grateful for the translator who worked carefully on each of her mother's poems and made it possible for readers like me to learn and be touched by this Bengali poet in English. Thank you to NetGalley and archipelago books for providing an ARC in exchange to my honest review.

‘Acrobat’

‘There is nothing left for me to buy
From your Great Fair anymore.
I am going to get up from my steps now.’

*** I received a free Advanced Review Copy from NetGalley. This review is entirely my own and reflects my honest opinion.

What more can I add to this beautiful collection? Nothing.

Nabaneeta Dev Sen is a master of her craft, with her poems striking a chord with even the most inexperienced poetry reader. I won’t pretend to have much knowledge of poetry. I’ve read a few collections here-and-there but I’m more of a fiction reader, however, Nabaneeta Dev Sen's writing is absolutely spell-binding and her poetry managed to grab my attention within the first couple of lines.

This collection delves into a range of evocative topics from womanhood to decay, simultaneously decrying and celebrating the art of humanity. Nabaneeta Dev Sen takes select morsels of ordinary life and transforms them into something magical.

The lines I have included at the start of this review, taken from ‘The Great Fair’, have haunted me ever since I first laid eyes on them. Out of context, they may lack their signature lustre, but they had me feeling as though I had been punched in the gut when I first read over them! The depth of emotion conveyed over a few short lines really is breath-taking, and something that is exercised throughout ‘Acrobat’.

There is something so relatable about Nabaneeta Dev Sen's work, something that makes me feel connected to the author and her experiences almost as if they were my own.

I am bewitched.
I am consumed.

Do not waste any more time reading my review, go and pre-order a copy of ‘Acrobat’ from your local bookstore right now. I guarantee you won’t regret it.

Translated into English from Bengali, Acrobat is a collection of poems written by the celebrated Bengali poet Nabaneeta Dev Sen. The book’s translation is a collaborative effort by the poet herself and her daughter Nandana Dev Sen.

Acrobat contemplates themes of nature, destruction, existence, grief, desire and motherhood.

Nabaneeta Dev Sen’s poetry is evocative and equivocal. The beauty of most of her poems is captured so well in translation that I can only imagine what they must sound like in their mother tongue of Bengali to eyes and ears that understand the language.

In my interpretation of the poems, the pieces about nature painted a colourful picture of Bengal and its defining characteristics. The poems about men and women reminded me of how men see the world, full of opportunity for them and how women view the world because it terrorizes them.

Reading this collection helps to bridge the gap between oceans as the aforementioned themes are prevalent worldwide and art is the way in which we realize this.

I am not an avid poetry reader simply because I am not patient enough to interpret it. But I liked this collection. At times I found it difficult to understand the meaning behind a piece and re-read it, even reading some pages out loud. Overall, I surmise that some of poems’ nuance is lost in translation however it is still a memorable collection.

Nabaneeta Dev Sen passed away in 2019 and her daughter has written a must-read tribute at the end of this book that will bring you to tears.

Acrobat is out on April 27th, 2021. Thank you to NetGalley, Archipelago Books, Nandana Dev Sen and the late Nabaneeta Dev Sen for this advance review copy.

Thank you, NetGalley for this ARC!

I liked reading this, and honestly, the letter at the end made me tear up. I may not have enjoyed every single piece included here, but I liked the majority, and even the ones I didn't, I wished I could have read them in Bengali. Being desi myself, you can tell something is always missing in the translation, no matter how thoughtfully done.

Acrobat is not only concerned with the larger scope of history, but also with the delicate, shimmering experience of the poet's immediate world. Nabaneeta Dev Sen picks up these glinting fragments of her experience, then turns them over in her hand to see how they reflect the light of a world. Time is another recurring leitmotif, and a number of poems allude to the existential exploration of what it means to be a woman in this world.
The translations, done by Nandana Dev Sen, speak of an intimacy with the language and an understanding of the landscape that shaped her mother's existence. Nandana's skill with rhyme, internal and end-rhymes, is apparent throughout the collection.