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Readings Reviews from Syed Badrul Ahsan

Rediscovering Tagore, in English

Syed Badrul Ahsan
ONE keeps discovering, and then rediscovering, Rabindranath Tagore. For Bengalis, he has always been a point of cultural reference. For those outside the frontiers of Bengal, and especially since he became the recipient of the Nobel for literature a hundred and one years ago, Tagore has been an object of veneration, to a point where his poetry has meshed with his philosophy to catapult him to Olympian heights. And yet it is equally true that the degree of popularity and academic acceptability Tagore ought to have been privy to in global literary circles has in large measure not been there. When you consider the spontaneity with which literary people like Neruda and Marquez and even Llosa are read around the world, you tend to wonder why Tagore has not made much of an inroad among readers in the West, despite the awe in which they hold him.
The argument now before us, therefore, is simple: Tagore must move out of Bengal, on both sides of the divide, and expand his acceptability, in other words his readership, around the world. One way of doing that is to employ the English language in making a gift of him to non-Bengali students and researchers of global literature. Fortunately for all of us, the International Theatre Institute Bangladesh Gentre appears to be quite keen in broadening the reach of the Tagore persona across continents. It has just come forth with a number of plays, fifteen to be exact, by the poet in the English language. The English translations, happily for Tagore aficionados, are by the poet himself. As the title of the work, compiled by Ramendu Majumdar, makes it clear, the plays are "in his own English version." It is once more a sign of the versatility which
defined the Tagore personality. A poet, short story writer, music maker and artiste, Tagore was in a very' significant way the embodiment of the cultured human personality. His knowledge of English was remarkable, one reason being the general, historical inability of poets and novelists to have a grasp of languages other than their own. It was a hurdle Tagore was able to leap across easily, as his translations of the Geetanjali poems were to make evident.
The plays that you encounter in Fifteen Plays of Rabindranath Tagore are certainly those you have read or heard or seen performed at some point in life. But when you read them in this compilation, you are quite inclined to ask if these plays, or some of them at least, could not be staged in the language in which we get them here. Ramendu Majumdar will, of course, know better. To what extent it is possible to have actors, Bengali-speaking ones of course, deliver the dialogue in the English language is an issue he might as well mull over. A whole new ambience might be set into motion should steps be taken toward presenting these plays on stage here in Bangladesh as also in West Bengal.
Meanwhile, here is a glimpse into what Ramendu Majumdar offers in this compilation of Tagore drama. You get plenty here. Observe:
Sanyasi, The King and the Queen, Sacrifice, Ghitra, Malini, The King of the Dark Chamber, Autumn-Festival, The Cycle of Spring, The Trial, The Waterfall, The Car of Time, Red Oleanders, The Dancing Girl's Worship, King and Rebel, The Crown.
This surely is a rich collection. The affluence associated with Tagore's works is captured by Majumdar in the introduction to the work:
"Rabindranath Tagore wrote more than sixty plays — both short and full length ones. They can be classified as verse, musical, allegorical, social, comical plays and dance dramas . . . He continuously revised his own plays and translated or reworked them into English."
This work deserves a place on your table and a high perch in libraries around the country.