Tagore's Gitanjali
In recent years there has been a growing interest in the works of Rabindranath Tagore. This is not surprising in view of the fact that the oeuvre of Tagore encompasses almost all facets of literature. Not only that, as a philosopher and thinker he also covered a diverse range of subjects. The volume in question is, however, a new translation of the very book that brought him into the limelight on the world stage, 'Gitanjali'. This book is a collection of 157 poems.
By BHASWATI BHATTACHARYA
This is the first attempt to translate the entire Bengali book into Dutch since the Bengali Gitanjali was published in 1910. Tagore's English Gitanjali contained about one-third of the poems of the original Gitanjali, the rest being drawn from his earlier works. Moreover, he only imperfectly paraphrased his Bengali poems in the English version. Much of the force in the original was lost in the English.Since then the art of translation has come a long way. Tagore's works in Bengali have seen more faithful and accurate translations specially into Dutch, English, and German. But most of these works are in the form of anthology. Dr Gysen certainly deserves credit for having taken on the challenge of a whole volume.
The Dutch renderings in this volume read well and a person not familiar with the Bengali original would not have any problem with them. But the images Tagore uses are often metaphors of a deeper philosophical experience / consciousness. In Poem no.12 'amala dhabala pale' the fifth and sixth lines, 'my mind (like the boat) wants to sail away, wants to leave behind all longings and belongings on this shore.' This craving for a journey towards the infinite, unknown, leaving the mundane world behind is lost in the present Dutch translation which says: 'My mind roams about on the shore where everything is possible.' The same metaphors of 'boat', 'sailing forth' ('pichan' ) recur in Poem no.69 'oi re tori dilo khule'. Lines 3-6 read 'If you have to sail forth/ Let the past remain behind/ You wanted to take it on your back/ You alone were left on the shore.' The poet of Gitanjali is constantly engaged in a kind of conversation with his other inner self (?God/beloved- it is never explicit in Tagore's texts). The self-realization of the poet could be universal and that is where his strength lies. What does the Dutch translation say? 'If You choose for life/ Forget that You are getting old/ Yet if that becomes Your concern/ You will be left here alone'. In his poems, Tagore has always used the word 'tumi' (second person informal) for the other self to indicate an intimate relationship. The choice of an emphasized formal 'you' (Dutch 'U') in Gysen's translations blurs this intimacy. Moreover, in many cases Gysen merely sums up the text and sometimes in such a way that it is reduced to platitude, e.g. nos. 4 and 44. Poem no.2, 'ami bohu basonay...' should read 'I have many desires which I desperately want to be fulfilled, you have saved me by having deprived me...' The translation reads like this 'I ask You to fulfil some of my desires by preference. But You, who protect me, decide differently.' The next two lines in the translation are not there in the original. Poem no. 8 'Aji dhaner kshete' (today there is a play of hide-and-seek between sunlight and shadow in the paddy-field) has become 'Today, during the harvest-festival (oogst feest) they play hide-and-seek in the paddy field. Who takes care about that?' and I can mention many more.
It would be difficult to claim that these poems are works of translation. Many essential things are left out, while many new things are added. They have the essence of the poems of Gitanjali, and at the most, like Tagore's English works, they are also re-creations, in this case by Dr Gysen. *
Rabindranath Tagore
(Dr Jan Gysen, transl.)
GITANJALI:
NAAR EEN NIEUWE DAGERAAD
Tielt: Lannoo Publ., 1999, 172 pp. ISBN 902093614X, pb, Dutch, Dfl.34.50
Dr Bhaswati Bhattacharya can be reached at e-mail: bhaswati@let.leidenuniv.nl.