This book is an excellent collection of English translations of Bengali poetry. This book is a collection of selected poems of eminent Bengali poets from the middle of the 19th century to the second decade of the 21st century. In this collection, the reader will get an outline of Bengali poetry and literature and a deep sense of the modernity of Bengali poetry's subject-variety, ideas, style and manner.
Dinabandhu Ghosh lives at Burdwan and teaches at Bankura Sammilani College as an Associate Professor of English. He has written a number of critical books which reveal his power of judgment and love for literature. He has translated many Bengali poems into English. It is hoped that the sensitive readers can enjoy and appreciate these translations.
Primarily, I have no faith in translation. Poetry cannot be translated. Sensibility is beyond translation. At the same time, translation is a necessity as well as a reality. People in the modern universe require translation. The readers real translated things knowing the limitation of translation. A translator should possess both creative impulse and scholarship to translate a literary work. He should have free access to both languages. And he should have real mastery and love. Time and again R.N. Tagore expressed his deep distrust for translation. Still he was stimulated to translate. Translating a poem needs a different kind of inspiration and the Muse hardly helps a translator. The translator should rely on forced inspiration, if not mechanical. T.S. Eliot disbelieved the scholars and felt that only true literary artists can comprehend and judge literature. He had obvious partiality for poet-scholars. A true translator should have the ability to feel and judge, think and feel like the poet whose poetry is being translated. Dry and mechanical scholars are available, scholars with genuine literary impulse are found rarely. In our country, it is really hard to find people like Buddhadeb Bose and Dr. S.C. Sengupta who had brilliant poetical taste and power of judgement. They were the true judges of literature.
Bengali poetry is really rich, we should be proud of our rich heritage and the powerful ancestors. Chandidas, Vidyapati, Gnanadas, Govindadas wrote immortal poems. Ramprasad Sen and Kamalakanta were also able poets and their poems contain the intensity of devotion. Bengali poems are chiefly lyrical and it seems that the Bengali minds are best expressed in lyrics. Chandidas had extraordinary poetical talent and he was undoubtedly a genius. He could write in a very simple way and did not endeavor to be graceful and ornamental. His contains the intensity of emotion and deep expression of feelings. On the contrary, Vidyapati was more a poet than a devotee. He had the power to express a thought gracefully and brilliantly. He was not as simple and earnest as Chandidas but his poetry is really rich in melody and verbal splendour. As a poet, he was well-equipped and perfectly prepared. Gnanadas and Govindadas were the able followers of Chandidas and Vidyapati. Their poetry had the power to move the Vaisnab poem had the genuine and refined poetical emotions. Their language had smooth movement and it reached the readers immediately and deeply. The Vaisnab poems are the true treasurers of our literature. Iswar Gupta was very witty and satirical. He depended on wit, humour and satire. He had the definite purpose to teach and reform. He had no feeling of a great poet, Biharilal Chakraborty has the spirit of a true romantic poet. He had the imagination, the power to react to beauty in a romantic way. His romantic spirit was often coupled with spiritual adoration. Dream and ecstasy often accompanied his romantic spirit. Though he was lyrical to a great extent, he lacked the power of organization. It seems that his imagination was irrational and lawless to some extent. It seems that he was lost in his own dream-like sensibility and could not come out in real world. A great romantic poet should know to combine romance with reality, emotion with logic but Beharilal was engrossed in dream and fantasy, unsubstantial imagination and over-flowing adoration to beauty. But Rabindranath Tagore was influenced by his poetical spirit and Tagore has acknowledged that Biharilal was a true poet.
Michael Madhusudan Datta was a revelation. He had true poetical force and had the huge aspiration to become a great poet. Indeed he was a remarkable genius who changed the language and metre of poetry. In fact Madhusudan freed poetry from various shackles and paved the path for Rabindranath Tagore. In Bengali poetry, true modernism began with Madhusudan whose poetical method was modern, though he remained indebted to Indian epics for his stories and characters. Madhusudan's language has epical grandeur, though in contains certain lyrical lucidity. He was a great innovator and true creator. He has shaped the Lnguage of modern Bengali poetry. His language has certain force and freedom, majesty and poetical splendor. None can deny his poetical power and modernity and his contribution to Bengali poetry. Madhusudan had the Indian heart but Western education and both of them contributed to the making of his poetical talent. Though he was a courageous innovator at heart the poet was soft and tender like a true Bengalee. On the other hand, Rabindranath Tagore as a poet gradually realized his poetical power. He did not desire to break all shackles, all barriers and all traditions. Tagore had great admiration for the poet Kalidasa and the Vedas. He was amazed by the lyrical effusion of the Vaisnab poets. Joydeva enchanted him. At the same time, he was great impressed by the English Romantic poets.
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