The book contains translation of forty six longer poems and four short poems or 'Droplets' from Sukumar Roy's Abol Tabol. The book provides a critical review and a 'glossary' for each poem. The 'Introduction' provides detailed discussions on various aspects of Sukumar's life and creative genius including brief comparative studies of Sukumar and Iswar Gupta and Sukumar and Tagore; and the 'preface' touches upon the problems of translating Sukumar.
Dr Pradip Ranjan Sengupta taught English Literature at Behala College, Rabindra Bharati University and Alia University and he is still now associated with teaching at Post Graduate classes. He has written and edited books on Shakespeare, Synge, Anglo-Indian poetry, Indian drama, he has co-edited books on Wordsworth and Coleridge.
He has translated poems of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Donne and Synge in Bengali and is actively engaged in translation studies for years.
For a translator the primary difficulty lies in finding the philological, morphological, syntactic and semantic equivalents of the source language in the target language. Moreover, to make the translated version 'alive', the translator has to reproduce as far as possible, the mood, tone, intention and sense of the original writer.
Bengali language which has emerged from its 'mother' Sanskrit is essentially different from English which has its Anglo-Frisian origin. English language, for its rhythm and meter, depends on accent and 'stress', Bangla (Bengali language) has its unique fluidity and flow Is translation an 'art', a 'craft' or is it a 'science? There are a variety of prescribed methods of translation, it may be word for word translation or the translator may take liberty with the source language text and create a 'new text' in the target language. But while translating Abol Tabol I had to keep in mind a few famous 'names' who have already translated Abol Tabol effectively and with competence; I decided to translate Sukumar Roy in my own way, without being overawed by the 'aura' of some of these names, and consciously refraining from any imitation It has been an arduous task for me to try to retain the flavor and cadence of Sukumar's rhythm. My translation I believe, is neither a paraphrase nor a metaphase, nor is it an imitation. Transmitting the authentic *signature of Sukumar in any other language is almost an impossible task for any translator, I can only say with all humility that I have tried my best.
Detailed biographical accounts of Sukumar Ray (1887-1923) are available in a number of books, both in Bengali and in English and therefore in this introductory note I do not want to repeat them, I refrain from providing chronological details of his life, though I shall constantly refer to different incidents of his life to highlight and prove important facets of his genius
Humour, fun, laughter, farce, irony and satire are seminal aspects of Sukumar's poetic genius and this talent flourished quite carly in his life. Punyolata in her 'Memoir' has recorded how their Dada (elder brother) even as a boy, used to tell them funny stories which almost choked them with laughter and the stories which were free from any kind of malice could easily erase all traces of anger from their mind (Punyalata, p.68).
Sukumar initiated his 'Nonsense' club in their new residence at 22 Sukia Street, around 1901-2, along with the members of his family, and activities of the club were primarily confined to 'dance performances', 'dramatic activities', and 'music recitals"". Apart from the two hilarious plays, Lakshmaner Saktishell (Lakshman hit by a deadly missile / shell or arrow) and Jhalapala (Deafened by Noise) written during this period, Sukumare also wrote another play for his 'Nonsense club. Ramdhon Bodh (The Killing of Ramdhon), which was written during the early phase of the Movement against the Partition of Bengal (1905) is not available. the manuscript of the play could not be traced and we read about it in Punyalata Chakraborty's Memoir (Chele belar Dinguli Around this phase, Sukumar planned a hand written magazine and named it Sare Batrish Vaja (Fried items, thirty two and a half). In the carly years of the twentieth century, there were plenty of roaming salesmen, vending various fried items and a popular ""street food was a mixture of 32 fried items served with a fried half chilly For the handwritten magazine, the sketches and most of the writings came from Sukumar's pen and the editorial Panchtikto Panchon (A digestive syrup with five bitter ingredients) became very popular From the account of Prabhat Gangopadhayay we come to know that Sukumar gave a nickname to each member of the club and the names were equally 'absurd and hilarious, Jangalla Masorab Gyechchho', 'Fly Fox Metehen ete are some of the examples. (Quoted in Addhya, p.97) Many of Sukumar's works are imbued with anti-British feelings Curzon's scheme of the partition of Bengal was widely and bitterly criticized and Sukumar, then a young boy of seventeen or eighteen, was deeply affected by all these developments Neither Upendrakishore nor Sukumar was directly involved in politics but both of then wielded their pen, denouncing the repression of the Indians by the British. In an issue of Sare Batrish Vaja Sukumar wrote a poem.
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