2011 ‘Tagore Year’

Rashid Askari

 

 

Published in the Dhaka Courier, Thursday, December 29th, 2011

It is a generally acknowledged fact that Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) is the greatest Bengali writer ever born. He is irrefutably our literary icon, the quintessence of our national artistic merit. He was a poet, philosopher, playwright, novelist, essayist, artist, biographer, correspondent, editor, humorist, polemicist, travel writer and storyteller whose complete works in Bengali reached 20,000 pages. But this Bengali literary giant was not much confident about the quality of his English.

He made a clear confession of this to Ezra Pound, William Rothenstein, Ramananda Chatterjee, and his daughter Bella and niece Indira. He thought his English was not good enough. But the success of the English versions of his Gitanjali poems and that of his speeches in the American lecture circuit even before he had risen to prominence by winning the Nobel Prize must have proved that his fears were groundless.

Researchers have explored many qualities of permanence in his English writing. He is being discovered and rediscovered in different dimensions, and found preeminent among the writers of the globe. With the growing cultural awareness in these postcolonial days, the Bengali-speaking people, especially the younger generation have explored Tagore’s great artistic talent for English writing, and developed a tremendous interest in him. As a writer in English he wrote far more and better than many of the Indian writers in English. The 150th anniversary of his birth was celebrated with boundless enthusiasm. UNESCO has designated 2011 as the “Year of Tagore”. The world attention is being more focused on this literary cornucopia. So is increasing the study of his English writing.

Rabindranath was not a writer in English as such. He took to writing in English for the pressure from his admirers at home and abroad. Nevertheless, the corpus of his writings in English is pretty large and manifold. They generally fall into two major categories—originals and translations. Although he began this part of his career in his early fifties as a translator of his own writings, he did a considerable amount of original writing and translation of others’ works. In addition, he used the language to write scores of letters, and to give numerous lectures, talks, speeches, and addresses across the globe.

Tagore’s poems and songs in English

The English version of Gitanjali (Song Offerings) was first published by India Society, London in 1912, and was dedicated to William Rothenstein. It includes 103 poems of which 53 are taken from the Bengali version of Gitanjali published in 1910. The rest are extracted from his other works: 16 from Gitimalya (1914), 16 from Naivedya (1901), 11 from Kheya (1906) 3 from Sisu(1903), 1 each from Kalpana (1900), Smaran (1903), Gitali (1896), and Utsarga(1914), and 1 song from the play Achalayatan(1912). All the 103 poems, however, are translated by the author himself, and can be considered as an anthology of his poems written over a period of ten years.

The Gardener was first published by Macmillan, London in October 1913, and was dedicated to W. B. Yeats. It contains prose translations of 85 Bengali poems written earlier than the Gitanjali period. 26 poems have been taken from Ksanika (1900) alone. It also picks up poems of some much earlier works like Kadi o Komal (1886) Manasi (1890) and Mayar Khela (1888).

Published by Macmillan, London, in 1930 The Crescent Moon is the only work of Tagore in English where all the poems have titles. The book contains 40 poems of which 35 are selected from the Bengali work Sisu (1903).The rest of the poems are taken from Kadi o Komal(1886), Sonar Tari (1894), Ksanika (1900) and Gitimalya (1914).

Fruit-Gathering, published by Macmillan first in 1916, and then in 1918 together with Gitanjali under the title Gitanjali and Fruit-Gathering, includes 86 poems of which more than 50 are from Gitimalya, Gitali, Utsarga, Kheya, Naivedya and Gitanjali, and the rest are from Katha and Balaka.

First published by Macmillan in 1918, Lover’s Gift and Crossing is divided into two parts. The 60 poems in ‘Lover’s Gift’ are mostly from Balaka and Ksanika and the rest from Chitra, Smaran, Kalpana, Kheya and several other sources while the 74 poems in ‘Crossing’ come from Naivedya, Kheya, Gitanjali, Gitimalya, and Gitali. The Fugitive was first published by Macmillan in 1921.Other than the English translations of his own Bengali poems, Tagore has included here translations of 17 religious lyrics composed by others under three heads: ‘Vaishnava Songs’, ‘Baul Songs’ and ‘Hindi Songs of Jnanadas’.

Poems, posthumously published by Visva-Bharati in 1942, was a collection of poems of Tagore translated into English by the poet himself and edited by Krishna Kripalani in collaboration with Amiya Chakravarty, Nirmal Chandra Chattopadhyay and Pulinbihari Sen. The book contains 130 poems excluding the introductory one. It is the first attempt to present Tagore’s poems in the translation in chronological order. Stray Birds was first published by Macmillan, New York, in 1916, and was dedicated to T. Hara of Yokohama, the author’s host in Japan during his visit in 1916. The epigrams and short verses included in this book were, in the first instance, taken from Kanika. The rest were supposedly written in Japan. Hence, some scholars have found the possibility of the influence of Japanese Haiku on these poems.

First published by Macmillan, New York, in 1928, Fireflies contains 256 epigrams and short verses some of which are translations from the Bengali and some are written originally in English.

First published by Allen and Unwin, London in 1931, The Child is the only major poem by Tagore written directly in English. The poem was written in July 1930 when Tagore visited the village Oberammergau in Munich, Germany to watch the traditional passion play. He later translated it into Bengali under the title Sisu Tirtha. One Hundred Poems of Kabir is a selection of the songs of Kabir, one of the greatest saint-poets of medieval India. Being translated by Tagore, and published by India Society, London, in 1914 and reprinted by Macmillan, London and Macmillan, New York in 1917, the songs of Kabir were offered to English readers for the first time. Evelyn Underhill assisted Tagore in this great work, and wrote a long introduction to it. The source of this translation work was the most authoritative book on the subject entitled Kabir by Kshitimohan Sen.

Lekhan was first printed in 1926 at Balatonfured, Hungary in Tagore’s handwriting. It contained 420 short verses of which 72 were in English, 48 in Bengali, and 150 had both Bengali and English versions. The pieces in English (72+150=222) were later included in Fireflies in 1928 with some changes in punctuation, diction and syntax.

Section Six includes a cluster of poems written or translated by Tagore on different occasions.

To Shakespeare is the poet’s own translation of the 16-line Bengali poem written in 1915 at the request of Shakespeare Tercentenary Celebration Committee. ‘A Weary Pilgrim’ was written by Tagore on his way to Japan on 3 May 1929. Appeal for Relief is Tagore’s own translation of the poem which he wrote as the President of the Bengal Congress Flood and Famine Relief Committee. The Cleanser is Tagore’s translation of the Bengali poem ‘Methar’ written by Satyendranath Datta. ‘Freedom from Fear’ was written on the death anniversary of Raja Rammohun Roy. Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das is the English translation of a Bengali poem written on the inauguration ceremony of Deshbandhu Memorial. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was written on centenary celebration of the 19th centaury Hindu religious leader Ramkrishna. Two Poems Written in Iran are the poems presented to the Shah of Iran by Tagore during his visit there in 1902.

Tagore’s plays in English

First published by the Indian Society, London in 1913, Chitra was the translation of the Bengali play Chitrangada written in blank verse and published in 1892.

Sacrifice and Other Plays, first published by Macmillan, New York in 1917, contains four plays: Sanyasi, Malini, Sacrifice, and The King and the Queen. Sanyasi (The Ascetic) is based on the Bengali play Prakrtir Pratishodh (Nature’s Revenge) which was written in 1883.It is not an English translation as such, but what we may call a transcreation, i.e. a reworking of the whole play. Malini is a two-act play in English based on the four-act Bengali play Malini (1896) written in rhymed verse. According to critics, this play bears some resemblance to the Greek plays.

Sacrifice is based on the Bengali play Bisarjan which was written in blank verse in 1890.It was so thoroughly revised that the five acts of the original Bengali play were transformed into one act. The King and the Queen is also a transcreation of the Bengali play Raja o Rani(1889).The original play has five acts while the translated text is changed into two acts only. Critics consider it as Tagore’s nearest approximation to Shakespearean plays. Autumn-Festival is the English translation of Tagore’s Bengali play Sarodotsav (1908). The translation was published in The Modern Review in 1919, and later by A. C. Sarkar from the Brahmo Mission Press. The Trial is the English prose translation of Tagore’s verse play Lakshmir Pariksha (The Test of Lakhsmi) which was published in The Modern Review in 1920. The Waterfall, an English translation of Muktadhara (Free Current) was published in The Modern Review in 1922. It is considered to be one of the finest plays written by Tagore. Red Oleanders, the English translation of Tagore’s Bengali play Raktakarabi was first published by Macmillan, London, in 1925. The Crown is the English translation of the Bengali play Mukut (1908) done by Tagore himself. Tagore wrote the script of King and Rebel during his stay in England from June 1912 to September 1913 for the students of Santiniketan. He wanted to use it as an extra-curricular activity for the students.

English translations, letters, addresses, and essays

The story “The Victory”, is the translation of “Jay Parajay” (The Defeat), and was published in 1892 and later included in Hungry Stones and Other Stories. “Giribala” also is the English rendering of the Bengali story “Man Bhanjan” published in The Modern Review in 1917 and later included in Broken Ties and Other Stories in 1925.”The Patriot”, the English translation of Tagore’s Bengali story “Samskar”(Reform) was published in The Modern Review in 1928. “The Parrot’s Training” is Tagore’s own translation of his Bengali story “Tota Kahini” included in Lipika (1922) .It was reprinted in 1944 by Visva Bharati under the title The Parrot’s Training and Other Stories. This story is a satirical critique of the contemporary education system.

Tagore wrote quite a good number of essays, letters, and addresses in English which were published at home and abroad. The very important ones are as follows. Shadhana (1913) contains eight essays with a preface by Tagore himself. They were written during his stay in the USA from October 1912 to April 1913 while he spoke at different places on different occasions. The book was well received by the English reading public. Personality (1917) is a collection of six lectures by Tagore delivered in the USA during his second visit from September 1916 to January 1917. Nationalism is a collection of three lectures delivered in Japan during his visit there from May to September 1916, and in the USA during his second visit. Tagore’s direct denunciation of nationalism in this book raised a storm of protest in America and Japan, and the work made him unpopular even in his own country India.

The Centre of Indian Culture (1919) is a lecture delivered in Madras on 9 February 1919. This is supposed to be the first lecture by Tagore delivered in English in India.

Talks in China (1925) sprang from the lectures delivered by Tagore in 1924 in China where he went at the invitation of the Beijing Lecture Association. It is a collection of seven lectures.

Thoughts from Rabindranath Tagore( 1921) originated from Tagore’s journey to England in May 1920. Most of the pieces were written originally in English, and a few have been translated from Tagore’s Bengali religious discourses Santiniketon. The Religion of Man (1931) contains the Hibbert Lectures for 1930 delivered at Manchester College, Oxford.

Mahatmaji and the Depressed Humanity (1932) contains lectures, essays, and telegrams, etc which were influenced by Gandhi’s resolution to fast until death in protest against the communal award by Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald.

East and West (1935) is an exchange of letters between Gilbert Murray (1866-1957) and Tagore. A lover of ancient Greece spirit and liberalism, Murray was a great admirer of Tagore’s poetry.

Red Conflict (1913) is an address delivered at the Congress of the National Federation of Religious Liberals held at Rochester, New York, in 1912. The Spirit of Japan is a lecture delivered in Japan in 1915. The Meeting of the East and the West, based on the Bengali essay Svadhikar Pramatta is a critique of the contemporary political situation in India.

The Call of Truth (1921) is a criticism of Gandhi’s non-cooperation movement. The Union on Cultures (1921) can be considered as an outline of Tagore’s concept of Visva-Bharati as an international university. City and Village (1924) was based on a lecture delivered in Italy at Turin on 21 June 1926. The Voice of Humanity, included in Lectures and Addresses (1928) was delivered at Milan on 22 January 1925 during Tagore’s first visit to Italy under Mussolini

Address at the Parliament of Religions (1937) is the presidential address delivered by Tagore at the Sri Ramkrishna Centenary Parliament of Religions, Calcutta, March 1937. To Subhas Chandra Bose is Tagore’s own translation of the Bengali address Desanayak written in May 1939, soon after Bose’s resignation from the post of Indian National Congress president. Crisis in Civilization is Tagore’s last public address delivered on 14 April 1941.An authorized English translation of the Bengali essay Sabhyatar Samkat, it was finally revised by Tagore himself.

The fullest corpus of Rabindranath’s works in English has yet to be explored and evaluated. Many of his published and unpublished writings are still untraceable. As a matter of fact, the process of exploration of the wealth of Tagore’s immeasurable world of creation is an eternal process. Scholars should come up with fresh investigations into the vast world of Tagore’s complete writing in English to discover and rediscover intriguing windows into Tagore study. This should be the promise of the “Year of Tagore”(2011).

Dr. Rashid Askari teaches English literature at Kushtia Islamic University