Current Articles
 Tagore in Hungary:
Rabindranath Tagore and Hungarian Politics —Imre Bangha
Making Connections: Hungry Hungarians meet Bengal Tigers —Ketaki Kushari Dyson
Gallery: Tagore in Hungary
In Phalgun, One Night — Hannele Pohjanmies had a fictional encounter with Buddhadeva Bose in the woods of Finland. A conversation ensues which brings out the state of Tagore studies in Finland. Also included in the article are three songs of Tagore, translated into Finnish by the author, and a bibliography of works of Tagore available in Finnish.
Read the 'title chapter' of Buddhadeva Bose's classic memoir Sab Peyechhir Deshe ('The land where I found it all'), being serialized in Parabaas. Translated by Nandini Gupta: "The land where I found it all" (Chapter 6).
Previous Instalments:
Chapter 1:Earler Memories
Chapter 2:Ratan Kuthi and Other Houses
Chapter 3:Holidaying
Chapter 4:Summer, rain and children
Chapter 5:A solitary madman on a dark night
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Rabindranath and World-Life. — Niharranjan Ray's essay Rabindranath o Bishwa-Jiban has been translated from the original Bangla by Narasingh P. Sil -- " Who is this antaratama, the innermost one to whom he offers cupful of his weal and woes wrung out of his heart? The poet has declared her as the one who resides in his innermost being—the presiding deity of his life, Jibandebata..."
Let him speak in his own voice: Three books by Uma Das Gupta. Ana Jelnikar reviews (a) A difficult friendship: Letters of Edward P. Thompson and Rabindranath Tagore, 1913-1940, (b) Rabindranath Tagore: A Biography, and (c) Rabindranath Tagore: my life in my words.
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Crisis in Civilization, and a Poet’s Alternatives:
Education as one alternative weapon-- the text of a paper presented by Nabaneeta Dev Sen at an International Seminar on Tagore’s Philosophy of Education, organized by Chicago University Law School, at Ramkrishna Mission Institute of Culture in Kolkata on 29 March 2006.
Devotio Humana: Rabindranath's Love Poems Revisited -
"Any discussion of Rabindranath's concept of erotic love, that is prem, must be prefaced by and predicated on his understanding of human love as well as his outlook on the feminine..."An essay by Narasingha P. Sil.
Gallery: Rabindranath in the eyes of contemporary Bengali artists:
A selection of paintings, all done in 2004, by Rabin Mondal, Sekhar Roy, Shanu Lahiri, Subrata Gangyopadhyay, and Sunil Das.
The Parrot's Tale
`Once there was a bird. It was an utterly foolish bird. It sang songs, but did not read the scriptures. It flew, it jumped, but did not have the faintest sense of etiquette. ..'.
Palash Baran Pal translates Rabindranath's biting satire, in the form of a fable, from Lipika (`Brief Writings').
The Wrong Heaven
`She tied her hair in a quick braid. Even then a few strands of hair freed themselves from that knot and leaned forward on her forehead, as if just to catch a glimpse of her black and beautiful eyes. ...'
Another article from Lipika (`Brief Writings'), also translated by Palash Baran Pal.
Tagore in the Netherlands
"In my search for Dutch translations of Rabindranath Tagore's work in the Netherlands, I discovered some facts that may interest Tagorephiles the world over. This article describes these findings, and also includes the transcripts and scans of some letters exchanged between Tagore and Frederik van Eeden who had introduced Tagore to the Netherlands...
"
Liesbeth Meyer describes her work, which grew out of her chance encounter of a photograph in a book on Gandhi and his friends.
Selections from Santiniketan by Rabindranath Tagore "Just as darkness of the night had disappeared like a figment of our imagination as the day dawned a little while ago, may our minds become free from all false notions about our own place in the Universe. May we, like the rising Sun, fill the boundless sky of our universal consciousness
... "
Jyoti Prakash Datta's translation of Rabindranath's Santiniketan addresses.
Yogayog (Nexus) by Rabindranath Tagore -- A Book Review
"Of the eight novels written by Rabindranath (twelve, if one counts the novellas) Yogayog (first serialised in 1927-28) is the only one never translated into English before this. It is an unusually poignant but relatively less discussed text... "
Meenakshi Mukherjee reviews Hiten Bhaya's translation.
I
- A new translation of Rabindranath's poem Ami from Shyamali, by Dipali Chakraborty.
Grateful
- A new translation of Rabindranath's poem kritagya from Purabi, by Nandini Gupta.
Home and Abroad
-"I see in Santiniketan how with my “Europeanness” I am able to create around me an entirely new way of living together. Generally it is gratefully accepted and probably gives all of us a deeper sense of our humanity..." Martin Kämpchen, a resident non-Indian in Santiniketan describes his experience of living there for more than two decades.
Gazing at the Sun: Bangladeshi Poets and Rabindranath Tagore
"Is Rabindranath a Bangladeshi poet? The question sounds silly, given that he died in 1941, well before the Partition of India, let alone the break-up of Pakistan. There are some books on Bangladesh that define everything that belongs to Bangladesh’s cultural inheritance as ‘Bangladeshi’. For example,...
'" by William Radice.
Rabindranath Tagore in Germany
"Although the early biographies of Tagore characterize Tagore’s three visits to Germany as unmitigated success stories, Tagore himself preferred to take a more detached view. In 1921, he wrote to a friend: '...It has been a wonderful experience in this country for me! Such fame as I have got I cannot take at all seriously. It is too readily given, and too immediately. It has not had the perspective of time. And this is why I feel frightened and tired at it and even sad.'" by Martin Kämpchen.
Tagore's Poetic Greatness
"...But the question remains, is there a connection between his purely poetic greatness and those other attributes? Could he have been a bad man, and still have been a great poet? ..." - Lecture delivered at Rabindra Bhavan, Ahmedabad, 24 February 2003 by the well known Tagore scholar and writer William Radice .
A Poet's Dream: Discovery of Tagore Texts
"... Another accidental discovery during the course of the publication of ‘Tagore in Ahmedabad’ pertains to a lecture Tagore delivered in 1930 in Baroda under the title of `Man the Artist’. The event is reported in more than one Tagore chronicles. However, the lecture was not found in Volume 3 of `English Writings of Rabindranath Tagore’...." - Shailesh Parekh writes about how two forgotten articles by Tagore were accidentally discovered in Ahmedabad.
Man The Artist
"... Freedom is the very essence of life, the life which has broken out from the dungeon of the Giant Inert, and is ever creating innumerable forms in line, and colour, sound, and movement, in our inner thoughts, in our outer actions and our physical environments..." Lecture delivered by Rabindranath Tagore in 1930 at Baroda and published in 1932 under the title "Man the Artist" as 'Kirti Mandir Lectures Series No. I' - One of the discovered Tagore texts from Ahmedabad. - Rabindranath Tagore
Dr. Tagore's Reply
"... While a revised version of this lecture has been later published and is included as "Construction Versus Creation" in "The English Writings of Rabindranath Tagore" (Ed. Sisir Kumar Das), the full text of this lecture has so far been effectively forgotten..." - Another Tagore article discovered in Ahmedabad. - Rabindranath Tagore
Dialogue Between Karna and Kunti -
The dramatic poem, based on the episode in the Mahabharata Translated from Bengali Karnakuntisambad by Ketaki Kushari Dyson.
Bolai -
They were stories always unfinished--tender young leaves, just arisen; he felt a companionship towards them that he didn’t know how to express.
Translated from Bengali short story Bolai by Prasenjit Gupta.
Ritual and Reform -
My wife's name, Kolika ("flower bud"), was given by my father-in-law, I'm not responsible for it. Her nature is not suited to her name--her opinions are quite fully blossomed. Translated from Bengali by Prasenjit Gupta.
 A Wife's Letter - The unforgettable story by Tagore. Translated from Bengali by Prasenjit Gupta.
 In On the Wings of Hummingbirds, Rabindranath Tagore's Little Poems ... Ketaki Kushari Dyson invites you to a review-cum workshop on Particles, Jottings, Sparks, a translation of the collected brief poems of Rabindranath Tagore by William Radice.
 An Emperor of Life - An excerpt from the memoirs of the well known poet, novelist and essayist Buddhadeva Bose, describing his visit to Shantiniketan, the open-air school founded by Tagore. Translated from Bengali by Nandini Gupta.
 My Tagore - “When my friend Lothar Lutze urged me to soliloquise on my Tagore, the immediate reflex that circled in my mind was to reverse the sequence of such an undertaking and dwell simply on Tagore's Me." Noted Bengali poet Alokeranjan Dasgupta talks about the man “who tends to mould the very design ” of his innermost being.
 On the Trail of Rabindranath Tagore and Victoria Ocampo - Ketaki Kushari Dyson, the official editor of the correspondence between Tagore and the Argentine woman of letters, Victoria Ocampo, writes about their relationship and the story of how she unearthed a piece of history.
 Translating Between Media: Rabindranath Tagore and Satyajit Ray - “… Ray, the creative artist, translates Tagore's words into images, some with accompanying words, some without." Clinton Seely writes on Tagore’s short story Nashtanir and Ray’s film version of it, Charulata , and argues that both function as “apologia” for Tagore’s ambiguous relationship with his sister in law Kadambari Debi and her suicide.
 
[A bengali article by the noted Rabindra-Sangeet exponent Rezwana Banya Chaudhuri]
 Aji hote satabarsha pare: What Tagore Says to us a Century Later - “...he [Tagore] can take our understanding of a notion like ritual and turn it completely upside down; ritual, which we tend to view as the dead repetition of 'shut-eyed habit,' suddenly becomes a word designating a life lived in a state of near-constant, wide-eyed wonder.” Brian A. Hatcher writes about why Tagore’s works are still readable, a hundred years after they were written.
 Rabindranath Tagore and his World of Colours - Did Tagore actually suffer from protanopia, a partial color blindness? “How did Tagore’s colour vision affect his colour imagery, his language of direct description, his language dealing with remembered scenes and abstract concepts, his figurative language, his use of similes and metaphors, his language of emotions?” Ketaki Kushari Dyson writes on a fascinating and little-known side of Tagore.
 
[Tagore's poem Juta Abishkar, delightfully illustrated for children by Supurna Sinha]
 
[Article in bengali on Tagore and his novel Gora by Indranil Dasgupta ]
 
[Article in bengali on Tagore and his novel Gora by Chirantan Kundu ]
 A Foreign Shine and Assumed Gestures: The Ersatz Tagore of the West - “A profound difference exists between what Rabindranath is or was in Bengali society and what he has been viewed as in the West”, claims Somjit Dutt. Did Tagore himself seek to create this dubious Western identity? What aspects of his work are missing in their translations?
 
[Satire on Tagore appreciation by Chirantan Kundu ]
 
[Article in bengali on Tagore's play Muktadhara by Nandan Datta ]
 Rabindra-Sangeet as a Resource for Indian Classical Bandishes - Songs of Rabindranath are a unique legacy for the lover of Indian music. Anirban Dasgupta writes about the influence of Rabindra-Sangeet on the more traditional forms of music and its exponents.
 The Year 1400 - A new translation of Tagore’s poem by Ketaki Kushari Dyson.
 A People's Poet or a Literary Deity ? - “… how much of Tagore, the Bard of Bengal, does the average educated Bengali really know? Is there a sincere interest in and appreciation of the poet's works or is this just a ritualistic practice of the middle-class with intellectual pretensions?” Indrani Chakrabarti speaks to writers, singers and visitors at the Calcutta Book Fair about all the Tagore brouhaha.
 Rabindranath Tagore at the University of Costa Rica - Sol Argüello Scriba talks about the joys and challenges of teaching on Tagore in Spanish.
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