Gitanjali Reborn: William Radice’s Writings on Rabindranath Tagore

259 Pages·2017·4.364 MB·English

by  Martin Kampchen

GITANJALI REBORN

GITANJALI REBORN
William Radice’s Writings on
Rabindranath Tagore
Edited by

MARTIN KÄMPCHEN
Firstpublished2018
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To my dear wife Elizabeth, truest of guides.
William Radice

Contents
Preface ix
Bringing in the Harvest 1
The Genius of the Poet Tagore 13
Globetrotting with Rabindranath 25
Gitanjali Reborn, One Hundred Years Later:The Story of 38
a Discovery
Painting the Dust and the Sunlight: Rabindranath Tagore 55
and the Two Gitanjalis
Transplanting the Songs of Tagore 71
Master of Empathy: Probing the Genius of Rabindranath 82
On the Seashore of a Great Poem 95
What I Have Learnt from Tagore 103
The Possibilities and Problems of Tagore Translation 114
Rabindranath, Maker of Paths 119
The Balance of Complexity and Simplicity 128
Tagore before and after 1912 137
Tagore’s Sense of Rhythm 145
Tagore and Christianity 159
The Wakening of Shiva: Rabindranath Tagore’s 183
Spanish Incarnation
viii CONTENTS
The Teacher of Poetry and Life 198
Bengal’s Gifts to the World 210
Rabindranath Tagore: The Next Fifty Years 221
Photo Essay by Martin Kämpchen 237
Preface
In the years 2011 to 2014, Rabindranath Tagore celebrated a global
presence not seen since his lifetime while his popularity was at its
peak. The reason was three major anniversaries which followed each
other in quick succession: Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary in 2011, the
100th anniversary of the publication of the English Gitanjali in 2012,
and the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Prize in 2013. India and all
countries connected with India globally felt obliged to make the best
of this auspicious coincidence. Indeed, a multitude of conferences,
seminars, festivals, performances were lined up. Rabindranath’s books
were republished, translated, films produced and exhibitions of his
paintings held all over the world. There were a few people—experts
and lovers of Rabindranath Tagore—who were riding the crest of such
enormous activity. One of them was William Radice.
From 2010 to the later part of 2013 his presence in Tagore events
became almost obligatory. He travelled through three continents
tirelessly—Asia, Europe and America—to talk about his poet whom
he had studied, translated, and lectured about, since four decades.
Clearly, he became the western face of Tagore scholarship and of
Tagore values. Like Rabindranath went around the world to spread
the message of peace and international understanding in the years
between the two World Wars, so William Radice travelled tirelessly
to spread his love and fascination for Tagore. The same missionary
enthusiasm! I believe, William did not refuse a single invitation if
the dates did not clash.
He is singularly equipped for such discipleship. He had learnt
Bengali as a young man in London and started to read Rabindranath’s
poems soon after being able to read Bengali at all. Being a poet