Review of Medusa (A Collection of Poems)

By Nandini Sahu

Published by Black Eagle Books, 2025

ISBN: 978-1-64560-693-2 (Paperback)

Price: 300 INR

Language: English, pp. 126

       With the release of Nandini Sahu's tenth collection of poetry, Medusa, it is high time we look at this work with rapt attention. This collection is a departure from her earlier works, and there are new ways to explore the volume. Medusa is a work deserving a place amongst classics. While posterity will have the answer for certain, yet in my humble opinion, Medusa will continue to let its lines shine forth for generations to come.

The title Medusa is interesting and intriguing. Sahu is re-examining the myth of Medusa, a part of the huge, intertwining, intertextual, polyphonic stories of ancient Greek mythology. "Because Medusa's head was placed on Athena's shield and her blood was revealed to hold the power of both life and death, her head became a symbol of protection. Medusa was one of the three Gorgons, daughters of Phorcys and Ceto, sisters of the Granae, and Ladon—all dreadful and formidable beings," writes Sahu in the Preface to the book. Sahu scripts écriture féminine by bearing her voice, which comes through abject nullification of different versions of narratives of the woman as the 'other'.

Sahu adds a contemporary poetic view, and in her hands, the ordinary becomes the extraordinary. She wants to communicate, and each poem is a story she has re-interpreted, deconstructed, reframed, and reshaped around the real woman. "She bends to none, she is indomitable/ that is the paradox of strength in her soft hands./ In lands unknown, she flourishes unseen,/ through a vine that twines/ through cracks of some ancient wall./ Silent footsteps, she grows,/ rooted in soil she did not choose the source" ("An Ode to Every Woman"). In the poem "Manthan—A Ghazal," where love is/as manthan, she talks about cultural symbolism and deftly fuses the West and the East, and a meta-poetic foil is present in a subtle way. "In my 'manthan', you elected glory/ for me and for yourself, venom was kept./ Nandini's conjecture—love churned me,/ this love was my 'manthan'."

It is relevant to her readers that her poetry has the potential to change, and she adopts or rather embraces a straightforward, simple style. While she urges them to revisit the other works, she comes back refreshed, and there is a transformation which is her hallmark. "Sometimes we become more of exhibits than persons./ Then all liberties are taken quite deliberate./ Like a letter, sometimes destiny has to be picked/ from where we left it last" ("As the Going Gets Tough"). There is a luminosity she brings face to face with the truth, which resonates throughout the book. In "Imago," Sahu writes, "I carry this face like the national flag/ On Independence Day/ hoping one day to meet it/ unabridged."

Throughout the collection, there is grief, loss, pain, and there is transcendence. Some poems, like "God's Elect," are paradoxically powerful, where we have the image of the woman as blessed and cursed; these poems are dialogues with the self. "She is fractured yet complete/ a paradox of past and present/ a transformed woman/ wrapped in the same skin/ carrying the jagged edges of someone else's angst." There is also an ecocritical touch to some of the poems, and here Nandini is prakriti; there is a constant rhythm and lyrical resonance.

The titular poem and the collection Medusa come to the readers through a gendered post-colonial adaptation of a myth in a way that interrogates shared concerns over the ever-evolving relationship between a woman and her milieu, simultaneously narrativizing her many selves through ever-renewing discourses. "My écriture féminine takes encounters/ with conformist patriarchal schemes./ I address this by the edifice of our robust/ self-narratives and letterings./ You, my delectable, are with me in this scheme,/ in my Medusa epoch." Medusa richly adds to the genre of English poetry.

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About the Reviewer:

Dr. Sutanuka Ghosh Roy is an Associate Professor of English at Tarakeswar Degree College, The University of Burdwan. She has published widely and presented papers at national and international seminars. She is a regular contributor to anthologies and national and international journals of repute like Text, Journal of Writing and Writing Courses (Australia), Kervan International Journal of Afro-Asiatic Studies (University of Turin, Italy), Fiar (University of Bielefeld, Germany), Muse India, Setu, Lapiz Lazuli, The Times of India, The Statesman, Life and Legends, Kitaab, etc. Her poems have been anthologized and published in Setu, Piker Press, Harbinger Asylum, Teesta Journal, etc. The titles of her books are Critical Inquiry: Text, Context, and Perspectives, Commentaries: Elucidating Poetry, Rassundari Dasi's Amar Jiban: A Comprehensive Study, and Ashprishya (translated into Bengali, a novel by Sharan Kumar Limbale). Opera is her debutant collection of poetry. She is also a reviewer, a poet, and a critic.