Hungryalists recall Ferlinghetti’s contributions
KOLKATA: From his one-room flat at Kandivalli, Mumbai octogenarian Malay Roy Choudhury vaguely remembers how Lawrence Ferlinghetti found faults in the English used by a judge in the judgment in a case filed against him.
“A case was going on against me for my poem ‘Stark Electric Jesus’ in the early 60s. After the lower court passed its order, I had sent the case documents to him. Ferlinghetti not only found fault in the English that was used in the judgment but even published the poem,” said Roy Choudhury, one of the surviving members of the Hungryalist movement.
Ferlinghetti, one of the leading figures of the beat movement and a US poet and publisher died at the age of 101 in San Francisco earlier this week.
“I was introduced to Ferlinghetti by Professor Howrad Mccord. At the time Mccord, who was associated with the Washington State University, had come to meet us in Kolkata,” said Roy Choudhury, adding that he never got a chance to meet
the US poet in person.
The Hungryalist, or the hungry generation movement, was a literary movement launched by a group of poets in West Bengal in the early 60s. Shakti Chattopadhyay, Malay Roy Choudhury, Debi Roy and Samir Roy Choudhury started the movement.
“I used to mainly write in Bengali and my English was poor. So, he ( Mccord) fine-tuned my writings to make them more Americanized and forwarded them to Ferlinghetti. Later Ferlinghetti wrote back to me,” he said.
Owner of The City Lights bookshop, Ferlinghetti published four issues of the City Lights journal, says Roy Choudhury. “Of the four journals, our poems and works were published in the first three. In the first issue itself my poem on Hungry revolution and an article by Mccord were published. This was in the early ‘60s between ‘63 and ‘65,” he added.
Choudhury met Allen Ginsberg first in April 1963 when the latter came to his house at Patna, but it was not until Ferlinghetti started sending him letters and books from The City Lights that he read the beat poet’s most famous work, ‘Howl’.
“Even Ginsberg took many of our bulletins both in English and Bengali. They were later archived in Stanford University. The digital formats were stored in Columbia University. We published a card, which looked like a marriage invitation but had some slags inside. Even that was taken by Ginsberg,” he added.
“My English was not up to the mark. Sibnarayan Ray, educationist and philosopher, told me that there were faults in the language. Ginsberg however appreciated them saying that my writings were enough to create uproar, even though he said the language was a bit flowery.
Another Hungryalist Pradip Choudhury remembers Ferlinghetti too. “He used to send me any book which was published by City Lights. And it was not just Ferlinghetti. Those who worked with him also shared a very good relationship with me.”
He met Ferlinghetti. “It is very sad news. We shared a very close friendship that spanned almost two decades. We met at least twice in Paris.”