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

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and fervently dedicated lad.He had joined a Jesuit schoolat Darjeeling in Class Two andwas now completing his Collegegraduation in the same Jesuitinstitution. Meritorious as hewas, he had become a StudentPrefect while still in College.He supervised younger studentsand was allowed to eat withhis teachers, which he clearlyconsidered a great honour. Hisclear-cut, natural speech, hissimple pride bereft of arrogance,his fine features which wereneither harsh nor soft, impressedme. Here was a young man of,say, twenty-five years of agewho had been chiselled by themorally upright, intellectualJesuit knife. I asked him, what hewanted to do in the future, andhis reply was no surprise to me.He said: “I will be a teacher, Sir!I want to serve this institution. Ilove it very much.” With as muchenvy as dismay, I realized thatthis young man had probablynever been seized by doubt onthe merits of his education andcharacter formation; he hadnever gone through the agoniesof self-doubt.My envy was caused by therealization that my own life hasnot been as straight and simple.In fact, forever under various,often conflicting, influences, Ihave to struggle continuously tofind my direction, agonizing andpraying over the question whatthe wisest and most practicaldecision would be. At the bestof times, I felt elated realisingthat my decision, executed withcourage, took me further in mydevelopment as a human beingand a writer. At bad times, Icould hardly contain my despairat the mistakes and ill judgmentsI committed. My dismay lookingat this young mission schoolproduct, was caused by therealization how much he reallymissed out on the fullness of life.Elation and despair, doubt andcrisis belong to a fully lived life,and even being loved can neverbe worthily enjoyed without aself-purifying struggle.What do I mean by theseremarks in the contextof Rabindranath Tagore’suniversality? The Bengal Poethas not written his poems andsongs without the experiences ofalienation and anxiety, withoutthe fear and trembling he toofelt when faced by the mysteriesof life. Though he lived amonghis people with whom heshared a common language andculture, he was not confinedto them, not like this youngman in Darjeeling who wasrestricted to one single mindset.Rather, Rabindranath struggledthrough existential ups anddowns, through ananda (joy)and duhkha (sorrow), and evenhis light-hearted, full-throated,melodiously happy verses areimpregnated by them. Here I seehis universality. Earlier, I spokeof his mirroring the Whole inthe detail of a song or a poem,through which the Poet achievedspiritual transcendence. I nowtry to describe Tagore’s culturaluniversality which goes beyondthe vocabulary and the conceptsof one culture and thus openshis work to the understandingby other cultures. Alienationand hurt, strangely, speak moredirectly to humans than theproducts of a culturally secureand harmonious life.Reading Rabindranath Tagorein Germany brings us to yetanother dimension of thepoet’s work. First, we facelanguage as an obstacle. Bengaliis not considered a worldlanguage – but Rabindranathis a World Poet. This statementencapsulates all problems intheir entirety. Outside Bengal,Rabindranath’s language is nolonger simply a vehicle whichcarries cultural content and iscapable of evoking a culturaluniversality beyond language.Goethe (1749-1832), Germany’sclassical and most universal poetand thinker, has been intelligiblytranslated into other Europeanlanguages and been able toinfluence the people speakingthem. Shakespeare (1564-1616)and Dante, Victor Hugo (1802-1885) and Ezra Pound havebecome beacon-lights of theirrespective countries, radiatingbeyond their culture into allcorners of the occident. Theirinfluence depends on goodtranslations into other Europeanlanguages. We have a “cultureof translation” in Europe andAmerica; so we can demand thatwriters of national importanceshould get noticed internationallyINDIA PERSPECTIVES VOL 24 NO. 2/2010 72 INDIA PERSPECTIVES VOL 24 NO. 2/2010 73
Mit freundl. Genehmg: National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhithrough translations. There is a‘family feeling’ at work when aFrenchman appreciates a Spanishpoet, or a German picks up anItalian novelist’s book.Such a family feeling is stillabsent in India. She still lacksthe culture of translation. Despitethe efforts of several literaryagencies, the literatures of thevarious regional languages donot yet travel widely beyondtheir language boundaries,at least not as much as theyshould. One, there is no moneyfor translating from one Indianlanguage into another, andtwo, India so far has too fewprofessionals who are sufficientlyskilled to execute such a difficulttask. Hence, each regionalliterature plods on with ratherscant influence from the rest ofthe country.Translating from Bengali to,say, German involves a stillgreater effort. Rabindranathmust cross over, not merelyfrom one language to anotherwithin the Indo-Germaniclanguage group, but the poet’sthoughts and feelings must movefrom one culture to another,from one religion to another,from one emotional and socialorganisation to an entirelydifferent one. When I translatea Tagore poem into German, Ineed to break up the Bengalisentence structure, and thethought process moulded bythat sentence structure, into itselements and then “reassemble”them by integrating them intoLeft: “Study in Face” by Tagorethe German sentence structureand thought process. Needless tosay, this is a daunting task whenit comes to such a volatile, fluid,evanescent, ethereal “creature” asa poem. Is it not bound to fail? Isit at all worth trying?Before me, many others havetried their hand at translationwith the same questions inmind. Let us not forget thatRabindranath Tagore shot intointernational prominence witha slim book of English prosepoems, Gitanjali, which are thePoet’s own translations fromthe Bengali original. Today we,including myself, prefer to rundown the English Gitanjali assentimental. Clearly, it cannotstand up to the spiritual andlyrical lucidity of the original. Allthe same, the English Gitanjalihas introduced into the Europeanconsciousness a hithertounknown experience, namelythe direct, unabashed expressionof religious sentiments. Wein Europe find it increasinglydifficult to speak about religiousfeelings normally, withoutcamouflage. We feel uneasy andvulnerable, as if baring our soulis like stripping our clothes. Thisis a trend which has becomeeven stronger since the time ofGitanjali. The words “God” and“Lord” cannot be uttered withoutan undertone of fashionabledoubt. So Europeans increasinglyturn to Oriental religions toexpress their simple spiritualemotions. In this context, Tagorehas been a powerful vehicle ofliberating religious sentimentsin Germany. For that, thetranslations which were donefrom the English renderings arequite sufficient. After all, in thiscontext these Gitanjali poemswere less seen as literature thanas vehicles of religious emotions.Tagore poems serve this purposeeven today in Germany. It isastonishing how often a fewlines from a Tagore poemcrop up in a lecture or essayor any passage of devotionalliterature. Along with figureslike Khalil Gibran (1883-1931),Mahatma Gandhi, the Buddha,Rabindranath Tagore suppliesthe storehouse of memorable,sententious thought-lines whichare meant to prove to Europeanreaders that oriental wisdomteachers have a message whichcan be understood by allpeoples.Yet, there is more to RabindranathTagore than the pure religiousemotions enshrined in theGitanjali poems. Isn’t Tagorea figure of world literature andshould he not be seen againstsuch a canvas. I have tried toproject him as a figure whostands side by side with thenational literary personagesof other countries. I see himas one of the last universalistsamong them. Let there be moreand more translations from theBengali into European languageswhich prove this point. Thesetranslations will console andenrapture many readers asdeeply as the original consolesand enraptures Bengali readers.◆The author is a noted German writer andtranslator of Tagore’s works.INDIA PERSPECTIVES VOL 24 NO. 2/2010 74 INDIA PERSPECTIVES VOL 24 NO. 2/2010 75
Page 9 and 10: play-acting in the school. Theyplay
Page 11 and 12: to everybody. Once Tagorewas asked
Page 13 and 14: uying its rights, publishing tensub
Page 15 and 16: RABINDRANATH TAGOREAS A PAINTERSANJ
Page 17 and 18: whitewash on the walls, andthese wo
Page 19 and 20: totality of visual language are sou
Page 21 and 22: IN SEARCH OFA NEW LANGUAGEFOR THEAT
Page 23 and 24: a gap of almost eighteenyears. The
Page 25: The Scientist in TagorePARTHA GHOSE
Page 29 and 30: popularity as a poet can begauged f
Page 31 and 32: Painting by Tagore on board S.S. To
Page 33 and 34: oad basis of Hindu culture.Brahmois
Page 35 and 36: Gandhi and TagoreAMARTYA SENRabindr
Page 37: Touched by TagoreMARTIN KÄMPCHENCr
Page 41 and 42: or ‘The Course of History inIndia
Page 43 and 44: earliest statements regardingthe ne
Page 45 and 46: Tagore andRural ReconstructionUMA D
Page 47 and 48: TAGORE AND HIS TIMES:THE IDEA OF AS
Page 49 and 50: Benoy Kumar Sarkar, writingin the M
Page 51 and 52: Chinese bird-chirping was heardfrom
Page 53 and 54: In 1923, cultural celebrities,Mr. H
Page 55 and 56: Tagore with the students of the San
Page 57 and 58: Tagore andTechnical EducationB.N. P
Page 59 and 60: in the curriculum becauseone can ac
Page 61 and 62: Paintings by Tagore (above & right)
Page 63 and 64: Tagore:From the 21st Century Perspe
Page 65 and 66: atmosphere of the earth is one andt
Page 67 and 68: Mira: Tagore’s youngest daughter1

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

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