[4][6][7] Born in Barisal to a Hindu family of Baidya caste, Das studied English literature at Presidency College, Kolkata and earned his MA from Calcutta University.

His ancestors came from the Bikrampur (now Mushiganj) region of the Dhaka Division, from a now-extinct village called Gaupara in the kumarvog area of the Louhajang Upazila on the banks of the river Padma.

[15] Jibanananda's father Satyānanda Dāś (1863–1942) was a schoolmaster, essayist, magazine publisher, and founder-editor of Brôhmobadi, a journal of the Brahmo Samaj dedicated to the exploration of social issues.

However, the annual index in the year-end issue of the magazine revealed his full name: "Sri Jibanananda Das Gupta, BA".

When Deshbondhu Chittaranjan Das died in June 1925, Jibanananda wrote a poem called 'Deshbandhu' Prayan'e' ("On the Death of the Friend of the nation") which was published in Bangabani magazine.

These included Kallol, perhaps the most famous literary magazine of the era, Kalikalam (Pen and Ink), Progoti (Progress) (co-edited by Buddhadeb Bose) and others.

One of the most serious literary critics of that time, Sajanikanta Das, began to write aggressive critiques of his poetry in the review pages of Shanibarer Chithi (the Saturday Letter) magazine.

His marriage was solemnized at the Brahmo Samaj Mandir which was attended by leading literary lights of the day such as Ajit Kumar Dutta and Buddhadeb Bose.

Another important anthology came out in 1939, edited by Abu Sayeed Ayub and Hirendranath Mukhopadhyay; Jibanananda was represented with four poems: Pakhira (The Birds), Shakun (The Vulture), Banalata Sen, and Nagna Nirjan Haat (Naked Lonely Hand).

[citation needed] One poet now dead, killed near his fiftieth year ... did introduce what for India would be "the modern spirit" – bitterness, self-doubt, sex, street diction, personal confession, frankness, Calcutta beggars ect [sic] – into Bengali letters.Jibanananda’s life came to a sudden end by way of a road accident when he was only 55.

However, a number of new -ration poets consciously attempted to align Bengali poetry with the essence of worldwide emergent modernism, starting towards the end of the 19th century and attributeable to contemporary European and American trends.

Five poets who are particularly acclaimed for their contribution in creating a post-Tagorian poetic paradigm and infusing modernism in Bengali poetry are Sudhindranath Dutta (1901–1960), Buddhadeb Bose (1908–1974), Amiya Chakravarty (1901–1986), Jibanananda Das (1899–1954) and Bishnu Dey (1909–1982).

Even when the last quarter of the 20th century ushered in the post-modern era, Jibanananda Das continued to be relevant to the new taste and fervour.

[22] On the other hand, to many, reading the poetry of Jibanananda Das is like stumbling upon a labyrinth of the mind similar to what one imagines Camus's 'absurd' man toiling through.

In fact, Jibanananda Das broke the traditional circular structure of poetry (introduction-middle-end) and the pattern of logical sequence of words, lines and stanzas.

I turn off, leave Phear Lane, defiantly Walk for miles, stop beside a wall On Bentinck Street, at Territti Bazar, There in the air dry as roasted peanuts.

It is full of sentences that scarcely pause for breath; of word-combinations that seem altogether unlikely but work; of switches in register, from a sophisticated usage to a village-dialect word, that jar and in the same instant settle in the mind.

[23] A few lines are quoted below in support of Winter's remarks: Nevertheless, the owl stays wide awake; The rotten, still frog begs two more moments in the hope of another dawn in conceivable warmth.

(One day eight years ago, translated by Faizul Latif Chowdhury) Or elsewhere: ... how the wheel of justice is set in motion by a smidgen of wind - or if someone dies and someone else gives him a bottle of medicine, free – then who has the profit?

(Idle Moment, translated by Joe Winter)[24] Also noteworthy are his sonnets, the most famous being seven untitled pieces collected in the publication Shaat-ti Tarar Timir ("The Blackness of Seven Stars), where he describes, on one hand, his attachment to his motherland, and on the other, his views about life and death in general.

For example, a lone owl flying about in the night sky is taken as an omen of death, while the anklets on the feet of a swan symbolises the vivacity of life.

The following are undoubtedly the most oft-quoted line from this collection: বাংলার মুখ আমি দেখিয়াছি, তাই আমি পৃথিবীর রূপ খুঁজিতে যাই না আর... Jibanananda successfully integrated Bengali poetry with the slightly older Eurocentric international modernist movement of the early 20th century.

Although hardly appreciated during his lifetime, many critics believe that his modernism, evoking almost all the suggested elements of the phenomenon, remains untranscended to date, despite the emergence of many notable poets during the last 50 years.

He was at once a classicist and a romantic and created an appealing world hitherto unknown: For thousands of years I roamed the paths of this earth, From waters round Ceylon in dead of night to Malayan seas.

Unlike many of his peers who blindly imitated the renowned western poets in a bid to create a new poetic domain and generated spurious poetry, Jibanananda Das remained anchored in his own soil and time, successfully assimilating experiences real and virtual and producing hundreds of unforgettable lines.

সুরঞ্জনা, তোমার হৃদয় আজ ঘাস : বাতাসের ওপারে বাতাস – আকাশের ওপারে আকাশ। Thematically, Jibanananda Das is amazed by the continued existence of humankind in the backdrop of eternal flux of time, wherein individual presence is insignificant and meteoric albeit inescapable.

This conscious vigil that I see, I feel -- Yet will end one day -- Time only remains for us to ripe like a harvest in green soil -- Once so ripen, then the hands of death will be likeable – Will hold us in his chest, one by one -- Like a sleeplorn -- Fugitive lovelorn -- Inside tender whispers!

In this connection, it is interesting to quote Chidananda Dasgupta who informed of his experience in translating JD: Effort has of course been made to see that the original's obliqueness or deliberate suppression of logical and syntactical links are not removed altogether.

Names of trees, plants, places or other elements incomprehensible in English have often been reduced or eliminated for fear that they should become an unpleasant burden on the poem when read in translation.

Malay Roy Choudhury " Calcutta, with all its blemishes and bad names, is, after all, even in its odd architectural medley not so graceless as many strangers and Indians are disposed to think of it."