Death Of Krishna And Other Poems

In an interview some years ago Sitakant Mahapatra said about his own poetry "...it is meditation on the mysterious quality of all that exists, a ceaseless negotiation with the world and the self to extract some meaning from the apparent meaninglessness of experience and to find metaphors for what looks inexplicable. At its heart, however, is a core of joy in the very act of experiencing."

The poems in this selection from his ten published anthologies in Oriya over thirty years, bear testimony to that faith. They are, in the same breath trouble and calm, full of pathos and cheerfulness.


Sitakant Mahapatra is a major force in modern Indian poetry. Anthologies of his poems have been published in translation in most Indian languages and in English, French, German, Swedish, Danish and Romanian. Among the awards he has received are the highest literary award in the country, the Jnanpith Award, Sahitya Akademi Award (1974), the Kumaran Asan Poetry Award, the Orissa Sahitya Akademi Award, the Soviet Land Nehru Award and the Sarala Award.