William Radice on Tagore
His 150th birth anniversary is three years away, but there is suddenly a
buzz about Rabindranath Tagore. New initiatives - an audio-visual
reinvention of Shesher Kavita and a musical on Kadambari Devi among other
events - have turned the spotlight on Tagore. William Radice, English poet
and translator of Tagore, speaks to Ratnottama Sengupta about the world's
abiding interest in the poet-philosopher:
What led you to Tagore?
I started learning Bengali and that led me to Tagore, not the other way
around. After a while I understood why Tagore is called Viswa Kavi. Being
a poet, I have other favourites in Bengali. But everytime I return to
Tagore, multiple layers of meaning emerge. That's what leads to the
multiple-voiced critical response to him.
Many have dismissed his greatness. Do you think he's overrated?
Many westerners were disillusioned with his self-translations; many
Indians with the Bengali obsession with Tagore. I've asked myself the
question, and am convinced that he's truly great. In some ways he's
greater than the Bengalis - including of Bangladesh - realise. Tagore and
greatness are easily linked due to his iconic status in Bengal and India;
his long life; his central role in the formation of modern Indian
nationhood; his noble appearance; his wide human sympathies; his profound
spiritual insight... But it's his poetry that forces me to place him among
the greatest writers of all times like Homer.
Isn't it his world view as a humanist and internationalist that is more
relevant today?
All of those things combine to impart a moral depth. There's a profound
awareness of suffering, of conflict in his poetry. At the same time
there's a transcendental spiritual connection with what lies beyond.
Tagore was a dualist who found spiritual reality in the khela (interplay)
of the human and divine. In one of his greatest songs he says, There's
sorrow, there's death, there's the fire of separation/ Yet peace, joy and
eternity are awake. Everything that defined him stemmed from that
awareness: his compassion, social activism, concern for environment,
rapport with women and children... And all of these things are so relevant
today.
Gandhi's stature has risen with the unrest in today's world. Will Tagore's
stock similarly rise in future?
I'm absolutely certain that he has more to offer. In the literary world
he'll have much greater credibility since, like Shakespeare, he constantly
surprises, disturbs, challenges those who attempt to understand him, for
he never supplied ready answers. He offers an extremely interesting
balance between the moral, the rational and the spiritual.
Please also watch a documentary on Tagore made by Satyajit initiated by
then Prme minister of India, Nehru: link is given below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXcctmcHZlU
Regards
Asim
=================================
Professor Asim K. Duttaroy
Faculty of Medicine
University of Oslo
POB 1046 Blindern
N-0316 Oslo
Norway
Tel: +47 22 85 15 47
Fax: +47 22 85 13 41
Mob: +47 934 04 187
Email: a.k.duttaroy@medisin.uio.no
Website:University www.nutrition.uio.no/english/res/research/dutta_roy.html
Personal website: www.asimduttaroy.com
Visiting address:
Domus Medica,
Sognsvannsveien 9
2nd floor, Room 2199
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