IP_ Tagore Issue - Final.indd - high commission of india mauritius

Tagore, Gitanjaliand the Nobel PrizeNILANJAN BANERJEETagore felt “homesick for the wide world.” Further, he wasconstantly struggling to overcome the barriers of language.He thought that the Nobel Prize awarded by the SwedishAcademy “brought the distant near, and has made thestranger a brother.”Rabindranath Tagore, in a letter to E.J. Thompson, wrote in1916, “I feel homesick for the wide world.” A few years beforehis death, he criticized his own poetry for not being universalin expression, arguing that his paintings had rather overcome thebarriers of language. It was likely that Tagore, a seeker of universalconcord, would not have been satisfied in restricting himself to anaudience in the colonial, undivided Bengal where he was born andraised in the second half of the nineteenth century. Rabindranath,who translated Shakespeare’s Macbeth at the age of thirteen, turnedout to be a prolific bilingual writer of his time often taking pleasurein translating his own works into English.It was in June 1912 that Rabindranath desired to share the Englishtranslations of his poems with his British painter friend WilliamRothenstein (1872-1945) in London, (Rothenstein later went onto become the Principal of the Royal College of Art). A leathercase, containing the translatedmanuscript entrusted to Tagore’sson Rathindranath (1888-1961), was discovered to bemissing. Rushing to the Left-Luggage Office of the Britishunderground, Rathindranathmanaged to retrieve thebaggage that he had left in thetrain by mistake while gettingdown at the Charing Cross tubestation. Rathindranath wrotein his autobiography, “I haveoften wondered what shapethe course of events mighthave taken if the manuscriptof Gitanjali had been lostdue to my negligence.” Therecovered translations came tobe published in the form of abook Gitanjali (Song Offerings),on 1 November, 1912 by theIndia Society of London with anintroduction by the English poetW.B. Yeats (1865-1939).In 1910, Tagore published abook of poems in Bengali titledGitanjali. By that time he hadestablished himself as a poet,an essayist, novelist, short storywriter, a composer of numeroussongs, and a unique educatorwith an experimental school forchildren at Santiniketan. Heunderwent a number of personaltragedies by the time Gitanjaliwas published. Tagore lost hismother Sarada Devi (1875),adored sister-in-law Kadambari(1884), wife Mrinalini (1902),second daughter Renuka (1903),father Debendranath (1905),and youngest son SamindranathNobel Medallion (top), the reverse ofthe medal (middle) and the title pageof the 1912 Gitanjali.(1907) within the short spanof thirty two years. Thisexperience with death refinedhis sensibilities and gave himthe impetus to consider life inits contrasting realities with joyand wonder.In the beginning of 1912,Tagore became seriously ill.Cancelling a planned visitto England, he went to hisancestral home in Silaidah (nowin Bangladesh) on the banks ofthe river Padma for a changewhere he translated some ofhis poems from their original inBengali. After his recovery hesailed for England in May 1912,without any specific mission,with the mind of a wayfaringpoet, primarily obeying hisdoctor’s advice. During hislong sea voyage to England, hecontinued his experiments withtranslations presumably with adesire to connect to a distantand wider horizon. Before 1912,Tagore had translated only acouple of his poems.William Rothenstein, whoknew Rabindranath since hisvisit to India during 1910-1911,introduced Tagore and hispoetry to his illustrious circleof friends including W.B. Yeats,Thomas Sturge Moore (1870-1944), Ernest Rhys (1859-1946),Ezra Pound (1885-1972), MaySinclair (or, Mary Amelia St.Clair, 1863-1946), StopfordBrooke (1832-1916) amongmany others. They wereinstantly carried away withINDIA PERSPECTIVES VOL 24 NO. 2/2010 20 INDIA PERSPECTIVES VOL 24 NO. 2/2010 21