Tag: Char Adhyay

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Celebrating Translations

Transmitting across Cultures

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)

Translations are like bridges. Three years ago, we decided to start a bridge between Tagore’s ideas and the world that was unfamiliar with his language, Bengali. He has of course written a few pieces in Brajbuli too. We started our journey into the territory of Tagore translations with Aruna Chakravarti’s Songs of Tagore. Now we have expanded hugely this section of our translations with many prose pieces and more translations of his lyrics and poetry by writers like Aruna Chakravarti, Fakrul Alam, Radha Chakravarty, Somdatta Mandal, Himadri Lahiri, Ratnottama Sengupta, Chaitali Sengupta and Nishat Atiya other than our team’s efforts. To all these translators our heartfelt thanks. We share with you their work celebrating one of the greatest ideators of the world.

Prose

Stories

.Aparichita by Tagore :This short story has been translated as The Stranger by Aruna Chakravarti. Click here to read. 

Musalmanir Galpa (A Muslim Woman’s Story): This short story has been translated by Aruna Chakravarti. Click here to read.

One Small Ancient Tale: Rabindranath Tagore’s Ekti Khudro Puraton Golpo (One Small Ancient Tale) from his collection Golpo Guchcho ( literally, a bunch of stories) has been translated by Nishat Atiya. Click here to read.

 Bolai: Story of nature and a child translated by Chaitali Sengupta. Click here to read.

Humorous Skits

(All translated by Somdatta Mandal)

 Playlets by Rabindranath Tagore : Click here to read.

 The Ordeal of Fame: Click here to read.

The Funeral: Click here to read. 

The Welcome: Click here to read.

 The Treatment of an Ailment: Click here to read.

Non-fiction

Baraf Pora (Snowfall) : This narrative gives a glimpse of Tagore’s first experience of snowfall in Brighton and published in the Tagore family journal, Balak (Children), has been translated by Somdatta Mandal . Click here to read.

 Travels & Holidays: Humour from Rabindranath: Translated from the original Bengali by Somdatta Mandal, these are Tagore’s essays and letters laced with humour. Click here to read.

Himalaya Jatra ( A trip to Himalayas) :This narrative about Tagore’s first trip to Himalayas and beyond with his father, has been translated from his Jibon Smriti (1911, Reminiscenses) by Somdatta Mandal. Click here to read.

Raja O Praja or The King and His Subjects, an essay by Tagore, has been translated by Himadri Lahiri. Click here to read.

 Library: A part of Bichitro Probondho (Strange Essays) by Rabindranath Tagore, this essay was written in 1885, translated by Chaitali Sengupta. Click here to read.

Book Excerpts

The Parrot’s Tale: Excerpted from Rabindranth Tagore. The Land of Cards: Stories, Poems and Plays for Children, translated by Radha Chakravarty, with a foreword from Mahasweta Devi. Click here to read

Rabindranath Tagore Four Chapters: An excerpt from a brilliant new translation by Radha Chakravarty of Tagore’s controversial last novel Char Adhyay. Click here to read.

Farewell Song :An excerpt from Radha Chakravarty’s translation of Tagore’s  novel. Click here to read.

An excerpt from ‘Kobi’ and ‘Rani’: Memoirs and Correspondences of Nirmalkumari Mahalanobis and Rabindranath Tagore, translated by Somdatta Mandal, showcasing Tagore’s introduction and letters. Click here to read.

 Letters from Japan, Europe & America :An excerpt from letters written by Tagore from Kobi & Rani, translated by Somdatta Mandal. Click hereto read.

Gleanings of the Road: Book excerpt brilliantly translated by Somdatta Mandal. Click here to read.

Songs and Poems

Songs of Seasons: Translated by Fakrul Alam

Bangla Academy literary award winning translator, Dr Fakrul Alam, translates seven seasonal songs of Tagore. Click here to read.

  • Garland of Lightening Gems (Bajromanik Diye Gantha) 
  • In The Thunderous Clouds (Oi Je Jhorer Meghe) 
  • The Tune of the New Clouds (Aaj Nobeen Megher Shoor Legeche)
  • The Sky’s Musings (Aaj Akashe Moner Kotha) 
  • Under the Kadamba Trees (Esho Nipo Bone) 
  • Tear-filled Sorrow (Ashrubhara Bedona)

Endless Love: Tagore Translated by Fakrul Alam

Ananto Prem (Endless Love) by Tagore, translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam. Click here to read.

Giraffe’s Dad by Tagore

Giraffer Baba (Giraffe’s Dad), a short humorous poem by Tagore, has been translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam. Click here to read. 

Oikotan or Harmonising

Oikotan (Harmonising) has been translated by Professor Fakrul Alam and published specially to commemorate Tagore’s Birth Anniversary. Click hereto read.

Monomor Megher O Shongi (or The Cloud, My friend) has been translated by Professor Fakrul Alam. Click here to read. 

Professor Fakrul Alam has translated Tomra Ja Bolo Tai Bolo, Hridoy Chheele Jege and Himer Raate — three songs around autumn from Click here to read.

Tagore’s Achhe Dukhu, Achhe Mrityu, (Sorrow Exists, Death Exists) has been translated from Bengali by Fakrul Alam. Click here to read.

Colour the World: Translated by Ratnottama Sengupt: Rangiye Diye Jao, a song by Tagore, transcreated by Ratnottama Sengupta. Click here to read.

Bhumika (Introduction) by Tagore has been translated  by Ratnottama Sengupta. Click here to read.

On behalf of Borderless Journal 

Esho, He Baisakh, Esho Esho (Come Baisakh: A song to welcome the Bengali New Year) Click here to read.

Tagore Songs in Translation. Click here to read the next five.

  • Kothao Amar Hariye Jawa Nei Mana ( Losing myself)
  • Akash Bhora Shurjo Tara (The Star-studded Sky)
  • Krishnokoli ( Inspired by a girl who lives in a village)
  • Phoole Phoole Dhole Dhole (The Swaying Flowers)
  • Shaongagane Ghora Ghanaghata (Against the Monsoon Skies, Brajbuli to English)

Tagore’s Diner Sheshe Ghoomer Deshe (At the close of the day, in the land of sleep).Click here to read the translation.

Tagore’s Amar Shonar Horin Chai (I want the Golden Deer). Click here to read the translation.

Tagore’s long poem, Dushomoy (translated as Journey of Hope though literally the poem means bad times). Click here to read the poem in English and listen to Tagore’s voice recite his poem in Bengali. We also have a sample of the page of his diary where he first wrote the poem as ‘Swarga Pathhe'(On the Path to Heaven).

Deliverance by Tagore: ‘Tran’ by Tagore, a prayer for awakening of the subjugated. Click here to read the translation.

Abhisar by Tagore: A story poem about a Buddhist monk by Rabindranath Tagore in Bengali. Click here to read the translation.

Amaar Nayano Bhulano Ele describes early autumn when the festival of Durga Puja is celebrated. Click here to read the translation from Bengali.

Morichika or Mirage by Tagore is an early poem of the maestro that asks the elites to infringe class divides and mingle. Click here to read the translation from Bengali. 

 Purano Sei Diner Kotha or ‘Can old days ever be forgot?’ based on Robert Burn’s poem, Auld Lang Syne. Click here to read the translation.

 Aaji Shubhodine Pitaar Bhabone or On This Auspicious Day, a Brahmo Hymn. Click here to read the translation.

Raatri Eshe Jethay Meshe or Where the Night comes to Mingle , a song written in 1910. Click here to read the translation.

 Anondodhara Bohichche Bhubone (The Universe reverberates with celestial ecstasy), a song …Click here to read the translation.

Ebar Phirao More (Take me Back) a poem… Click here to read the translation.

Lukochuri has been translated from Bengali as Hide and Seek. Click here to read the translation.

Taal Gaachh or The Palmyra Tree, a lilting light poem, has been translated from Bengali. Click here to read the translation.

Nobobarsha or New Rain, a poem describing the rain transports one to Tagore’s world. Click here to read the translation.

Hobe Joye has been translated as  Song of Hope for that is exactly what it is in spirit. Click here to read.

Eshechhe Sarat, a poem describing autumn in Bengal, has been translated as Autumn. Click here to read the translation.

Aalo Amar Aalo is a paean to light and its impact on us. Click here to read the translation.

Tomar Shonkho Dhulay Porey (your conch lies in the dust), is an inspirational poem to shed apathy. Click here to read the translation.

 Prothom Diner Shurjo (The Sun on the First day) is one of the last poems of Tagore. Click here to read the translation.

 Banshi or Flute is an inspirational poem delving into the relationship with the divine muse. Click here to read the translation.

 Somudro or Ocean has probably been written during Tagore’s travels. Click here to read the translation.

 Borondala (Basket of Offerings) is a poem of ecstasy. Click here to read the translation.

Nobo Borsho or New Year, is a poem written on the Bengali New Year, urging people to rid themselves of past angst. Click here to read the translation.

Bhoy hote tobo is the first Birthday Song by Tagore, a poem written in 1899. Click here to read the translation.

Pran or Life, a poem that reflects the poets outlook on life. Click here to read the translation.

Megh or Cloud is a poem about clouds with spiritual undertones reflecting transience . Click here to read.

Proshno or Question  with its poignant overtones continues relevant to this date. Click here to read.

Sharat or Autumn, describes Bengal in the season of sharat or early autumn. Click here to read.

Amra Bedhechhi Kasher Guchho (We have Tied Bunches of Kash) is a hymn to an autumnal goddess. Click here to read. 

Tomar Kachhe Shanti Chabo Na (I Will Not Pray to You for Peace) is a song that inspires to survive the dark phases of life. Click here to read.

Tagore’s 1400 Saal (The Year 1993), was read in London in 1993, including Tagore’s own rather brief translation and had a response from Nazrul. Click here to read.

Prarthona or Prayer is a poem in which the poet seeks inner strength. Click here to read.

Tagore’s Dhoola Mandir or Temple of Dust is a poem that questions norms, even from the current times. Click here to read.

Phalgun or Spring  describes spring in Bengal. Click here to read.

Pochishe Boisakh (25th of Baisakh) is a birthday poem Tagore wrote in 1922 and from he derived the lyrics of his last birthday song written in 1941. Click here to read.

Chhora or Rhymes , a poem describing the creative process, it was written in 1941. Click here to read.

Okale or Out of Sync gives a glimpse of how out of sync situations are also part of our flow. Click here to read.

Mrityu or Death dwells on Tagore’s ability to accept death as a reality. Click here to read.

 Olosh Shomoy Dhara Beye (Time Flows at an Indolent Pace) reflects his perspective on history. Click here to read.

Suprobhat or Good Morning gives an unusual interpretation to morning. Click here to read.

Book Excerpts

Songs of Tagore: Seven songs translated by Aruna Chakravarti from a collection that started her on her litrary journey and also our Tagore translation section. Click here to read.

Songs from Bhanusingher Padabali: Translated by Radha Chakravarty: Two songs by Tagore written originally in Brajabuli, a literary language developed essentially for poetry, has been translated by Radha Chakravarty. Click here to read.

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A Special Tribute Review

Rabindranath’s Protest Against Violence

Book review of Tagore’s last novel by Meenakshi Malhotra on his death anniversary

Title: Four Chapters                                           

Author: Rabindranath Tagore

Translator: Radha Chakravarty

Publisher: Penguin

With Char Adhyay (1934, Four Chapters), Tagore’s last novel, he returns to his critique of violence, an almost ubiquitous preoccupation in this last phase of his writing which had earlier  witnessed the production of Ghare Baire (1916, The Home and the World) and his essays on nationalism. Both, The Home and the World and Four Chapters, share an underlying preoccupation about the limits of patriotism and the legitimacy of violence: does love for one’s own country justify violence and revolutionary terrorism? To put it in a philosophical vein: do the ends justify the means?

Like in The Home and the World , Tagore uses a triangulated relationship, if not a tripartite narrative structure. The plot could be summed up thus: Ela, a modern woman, looks for engagement, to give structure and meaning to her existence. At odds initially with her traditional but authoritarian mother, she grows up developing a strong sense of justice and a mistrust of blind superstitions and meaningless rituals, which hardly equip her to fit into a traditional marriage. After losing both her parents, she is under the care of her uncle and aunt, when she meets the charismatic Indranath, a disappointed scientist who has now turned to militancy and revolutionary terrorism. On  the other side is Atindranath or Atin (also called Antu), with whom Ela forms a romantic attachment. In the last segment of the novel, we realise that Ela’s politicisation had also pushed Atin into militancy since Ela’s dedication to the cause had co-opted him into it.

Stylistically this novel is striking. It consists of little narrative but is dialogic for the most part. As such, as the editor-translator mentions, the work acquires a dramatic quality. Also, Four Chapters comes across as a vehicle for ideas and at times, the novel seems to be weighed down by the predominance of ideas. Thus ideas of national regeneration, selfless action circulate in the text  without being directly co-related with the plot and story structure. The characters often are eloquent in their own praise. They seem to be mouthpieces produced as a result of clashing ideologies.

Four Chapters depicts the new, modern woman in all her complexity and confusion, poised on the brink of something new, yet unable to let go completely of the old. Torn between political zeal and romantic passion, Ela represents a model of womanhood which is recognisable and perhaps relatable. Displaying agency, she says she wants to “publicize the increase in women’s rights in the modern age.” Women , she feels, “don’t hesitate to speak the truth now”. In the “new literature, Bengali women’s characters are eloquent in their own praise. They have usurped the clay sculptor’s role of fashioning the images of goddesses.”

Both a scientist as well as a political leader, Indranath surveys human history as a continuing saga of oppression, death and destruction. His cold impersonality is contrasted with the romantic zeal and passion of Atin, who is devoted to Ela beyond doubt. Though Ela reciprocates his passion, she is committed to bow to the overarching cause of the nation and its freedom from subjugation. Yet Ela shows herself capable of great devotion as is evident  in her impassioned exchanges with Atin. She tells him, “You are great. I can see your brilliance, dazzling as a flash of lightning.” Fully aware of his devotion and of his romantic idealisation of her, she contrasts the small details which preoccupy women to the dazzling brilliance of Atin’s mind. In all these exchanges, we see her intelligence shine through. Moreover, she realises the entrapment of women’s biology. Nature, she feels, “has humiliated women from the time of our birth.” “We enter this world bearing destiny’s purpose in our biology, our bodies.”

In contrast to the passionate and emotional Atin is the  character of Indranath, who, seems cold, calculating and two-dimensional and driven by a single ideological narrative.  Indranath, the political zealot is charismatic but professes to be impersonal, commands and considers herself pledged to the nation’s cause. It is he who wins Ela over to the nationalist cause.

Nationalism here serves as a veneer for his revolutionary terrorism. As Radha Chakravarty writes in the ‘Introduction’ to the translated edition, “The novel charts the volatile scenario that arises from the conflict between Ela’s forbidden love and her dangerous involvement with political violence. Through the relationships between Ela, Atin and Indranath, the narrative explores the interface between love and revolutionary politics”. She also adds that the first draft of the novel focused on the romantic plot and did not have the character of Indranath. The character of Indranath is supposedly based upon a scholar-activist who was criticised by Tagore. In a letter written in August 1934, Tagore wrote to Prafulla Nath  Tagore, saying  that the latter must be aware of his eschewal of violence: “You are aware that I  am completely against the oppressive tactics of those who follow the path of terrorism…I have written a work of fiction that is cast as a protest against the terrorists.”

Tagore’s political views and novelistic stance elicited the wrath of many compatriots, political activists, extremists and nationalists who felt that this stance was expressive of his collusion with colonialism. Further, as Chakravarty phrases it, his “challenge to authoritarianism and insistence on freedom of thought” also aroused the suspicion of the British administration in India. Anticipating controversy, Tagore himself took steps to have it translated into English, though it took some time for the translation to see the light of day.

Radha Chakravarty’s recent translation captures the nuances of a complex text. It is one of the rare instances where the translation has rescued the occasional stiltedness of the original and thus fares better in some instances. The novel, which runs the occasional danger of collapsing under the weight of its own ideas in the original Bengali version, is modernised and through this particular translation, the narrative is made more empathetic to the needs of the contemporary reader. This is a translation of a difficult novel which serves to give a fresh lease of life to an important but not a very popular book, and restores it for the modern reader.     

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Dr Meenakshi Malhotra is Associate Professor of English Literature at Hansraj College, University of Delhi, and has been involved in teaching and curriculum development in several universities. She has edited two books on Women and Lifewriting, Representing the Self and Claiming the I, in addition  to numerous published articles on gender, literature and feminist theory.       

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Celebrating Tagore

Was he a poet? A writer? A humorist? A social reformer…

Paintings by Rabindranath Tagore. Courtesy: Creative Commons

At an intellectual plane, we could keep arguing about labelling Tagore. He was truly a polymath. But, the most important thing is he touched our hearts with his words and used that to earn and pour into projects that benefitted the underprivileged. This year, on his 161st birth anniversary, we will explore some lesser known aspects of the maestro: Rabindranath, the social reformer and the humorist weaving both the Gregorian calendar (7th May) and the Bengali calendar (9th May) dates into our celebrations.

Tagore, the Humorist 

Many of us from Bengal grew up reading light pieces by Tagore embracing his creations as a much-loved part of our hearts. We present translations by Fakrul Alam and Somdatta Mandal of Tagore’s humour — a light poem about a giraffe and playlets by the maestro. 

Giraffe’s Dad by Tagore: Giraffer Baba (Giraffe’s Dad), a short humorous poem by Tagore, has been translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam. Click here to read.

Playlets by Rabindranath Tagore : Two skits that reveal the lighter side of the poet. They have been translated from Bengali by Somdatta Mandal. Click here to read.

Tagore, the Social Reformer

Tagore thought his “life work” lay in developing villages and bridging gaps. A recent book by Uma Dasgupta brought this to light. We have an interview and review of her book, A History of Sriniketan: Rabindranath Tagore’s Pioneering work in Rural Reconstruction Along with that we have some translations of his poetry focussing on his call to bridge gaps — one of them by Fakrul Alam and another that has been mentioned in Dasgupta’s book as a description of his mindset that led to the Sriniketan project. Meenakshi Malhotra’s review of Radha Chakravarty’s translation of Mahasweta Devi’s Our Santiniketan and an interview with translator Somdatta Mandal, an ex-professor of Visva Bharati shifts the focus to Santiniketan. However, the icing on Tagore’s birthday cake is yet another excerpt from Radha Chakravarty’s latest translation of Char Adhyay or Four Chapters, his last and thirteenth novel which takes up issues of nationalism, gender, gaps in upbringing against the setting of a budding romance. The heroine is truly modern in her outlook and passionate about service to humanity. 

Sriniketan: Tagore’s “Life Work” :In Conversation with Professor Uma Das Gupta, Tagore scholar, author of A History of Sriniketan, where can be glimpsed what Tagore considered his ‘life’s work’ as an NGO. Click here to read. (Review & Interview).

Oikotan (Harmonising) has been translated by Professor Fakrul Alam and published specially to commemorate Tagore’s Birth Anniversary. Click here to read.

Ebar Phirao More (Take me Back) a poem that calls for bridging gaps between the rich and poor translated by Mitali Chakravarty … Click here to read.

Mahasweta Devi, Our Santiniketan : Meenakshi Malhotra reviews Mahasweta Devi, Our Santiniketan translated by Radha Chakravarty. Click here to read.

Where the Whole World Meets in a Single Nest: In Conversation with Somdatta Mandal, a translator, scholar and writer who has much to say on the state of Santiniketan, Tagore and more. Click here to read.

Rabindranath Tagore Four Chapters: An excerpt from a brilliant new translation by Radha Chakravarty of Tagore’s controversial last novel Char Adhyay. Click here to read.