A collection of self-translations from three Bengali volumes — rendered into English during the years of pandemic distance. Four movements across forty poems: Displacement, Awakening, Creation, Reckoning.
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Rik Amrit is an Indian writer, poet, editor, and independent researcher working at the intersection of literature, aesthetics, and Indian knowledge systems. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of Poorvam International Journal of Creative Arts and Cultural Expressions.
His scholarly work engages deeply with Bharata's Nāṭyaśāstra and Rasa theory. Never Returned to Pen is his second book, following Two Plays.
The self-translations were made during the pandemic years, when returning to Bengali felt like archaeology — and English became the only available instrument of distance.
"Once etched on paper, the words never return to the pen's embrace — like Krishna leaving childhood's Gokula."
"Below my pillow, tram lines run their course, and beside them, a new crematorium burns electric."
"The ink knows what you don't: it was always blood, just learning to be blue for a more civilised world."
"What makes you Amrit, Rik? Churning — of self, of silence, of the unseen."
"Yet it still casts its light upon the Earth."
"Once etched on paper, the words never return to the pen's embrace — like Krishna leaving childhood's Gokula."
"Below my pillow, tram lines run their course, and beside them, a new crematorium burns electric."
"The ink knows what you don't: it was always blood, just learning to be blue for a more civilised world."
"What makes you Amrit, Rik? Churning — of self, of silence, of the unseen."
"Yet it still casts its light upon the Earth."