How do Bengali women love in times of social transition and political
upheaval? These poems look at how Bengali women tell their truths of the
heart and mind through their struggles for equality, opportunity, and
recognition in a changing society. The poems follow a subtle trajectory
through the stages of love: first love; marriage; separation; aging and
death; and ultimate supreme, universal love, of which romantic love is
an imperfect reflection.
Carolyne Wright spent four years collecting and translating Bengali
women's poetry. Wright is a poet herself, and her most recent collection
is A Change of Maps.