KOLKATA, Oct 28: Due to poor translation of his masterpieces, the literary creation of Rabindranath Tagore has been “misinterpreted” by people in Sweden where he was honoured with the Nobel prize in literature, experts say.
“Even his most famous work ‘Gitanjali’ for which he won the Nobel is practically unreadable in Swedish. It has neither the rhythm nor the brilliance which is reflected in his original Bengali writing,” Swedish Tagore scholar Olavi Hemmila told.
In Kolkata to participate in the celebration of 100 years of Tagore winning the prestigious award in literature, he said all the Swedish translations of his works are poor in quality.
“It is very sad that his works have been misinterpreted during translation. I think the translators were romantic characters and they had love for ancient Sweden history. During translation, they forgot the Indian backdrop in his works and saw it with a particular bias,” Hemmila said.
Tagore’s poetries, dramas, short stories and novels written in Bengali has been translated into many languages across the world.
Ambassador of Sweden in India Harald Sandberg said even the bard himself was worried about the quality of the translations.
“That is because poetry is always extremely difficult to translate. Its a challenge for any one to keep it deeply original,” he said.
Even the Nobel Committee in 1913 had observed in the nomination that the actual significance of Tagore’s works can be understood in a limited way because of the unavailability of his translated works. The original nomination text was put on public display here for the first time in India by the Embassy of Sweden.
Citing an example, Hemmila said in West Bengal people celebrate the month of October as the autumn bids farewell to the humid summer. “But in Sweden people get worried with the onset of autumn as the winters there are very cold. Now when Tagore writes of celebrations during October, the translators could not relate to it leading to faulty translations,” he reasoned.
Associated with the Swedish South Asian Studies Network of Lund University, he has done extensive research on Tagore and wrote a book on the bard’s visits to Sweden in 1921 and 1926.
Hemmila links the gradual decline in popularity of ‘Gurudev’ in the West to the poor translations.
“All those who lay his hands on his translated works in many languages were left disappointed. They could not make out what a genius he was,” he said.
He however admitted that the English translations of Tagore’s works are much better.
Another reason for Tagore’s drop in popularity was his criticism of the colonial British rule in India during that period.
“People saw him as a spiritual figure through his writings but whenever he went to the West he was always critical of the colonial rule. His focus was on criticism and so people could not relate to what he spoke of when he met them,” said the scholar.
Tagore was declared the Nobel awardee-designate on November 13, 1913 for ‘Gitanjali’, his book of poems. He was not only the first Indian to win the Nobel Prize but also the first non-European to win the award in literature.
To mark the occasion, the Embassy of Sweden is organising the ‘Sweden India Nobel Memorial Week’ in many Indian cities.
Hemmila said he is hoping for a revival in interest on Tagore’s works.
“But that is possible only when you have good translations,” said the scholar. (PTI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel