A Doctor's Diagnosis Of Prose: Prescribing Poetic English For Tagore's Music

Kolkata: Renowned cardiologist Dr. Anjan Lal Dutta stunned the audience at an event here with his presentation of English translations of Rabindranath Tagore's songs. The doctor's works featured during a Bijoya Sammelan (Durga Puja reunion) programme at the Rotary Sadan with live performances by several noted Rabindra Sangeet (Tagore's songs) singers of Kolkata.

Dr. Dutta's work is notable for attempting to recapture the lyrical poetry of the original Bengali compositions in his English verse translations. The initiative helps to bridge the gap in reaching Tagore's songs to a global audience and is being celebrated for its innovative and culturally significant approach.

While Rabindra Nath Tagore translated his own poems into English prose for Gitanjali, translations of his songs were often not as well-received by the public because they lacked the original poetic rhythm.

Needless to say, the world did not let the Bengali Nobel Laureate Rabindranath to remain confined only to Bengal. That is why his writings have always been appreciated in the court of the world.

In 1981, the song 'Poslednyaya Poema' was the 'Song of the Year' in the Soviet Union. The lyrics of this song, composed by Alexey Rybinkov, were taken from Rabindranath Tagore's 'Shesher Kobita' (The Last Poem). Rybinkov composed the last lines of 'Shesher Kobita' in Russian. The song music composed by Rybnikov and lyrics adapted from Tagore gained popularity in the then Soviet Union, indicating how proper translations of Tagore songs could enthral a wider audience.

However, why is there so much talk about this today?

In fact, Tagore's songs are for all seasons, for everyone. Be it Bengalis or people speaking other languages. However, it is not possible for everyone to understand what the world poet wanted to convey in Bengali. There is only one way to listen to them in English. Understanding the inner meaning of those Bengali songs written by Tagore and presenting his thoughts in front of everyone with the right dignity is not only time-consuming, but also not that easy.

But someone has to come forward. And cardiologist Dutta is translating Tagore's songs one after another into English. And they are sung by talented artists of Bengal. Dutta's YouTube channel has a collection of these songs translated into English. The book 'Theme of Devotion' written by the doctor, will be a valuable resource for all language-speaking music lovers, that is, for Rabindra Sangeet lovers. How did he start this journey of translating Rabindra Tagore's songs while handling his profession as a doctor?

Dutta said, "Rabindranath himself admitted that his songs were the most valuable creations. People will remember them forever. Therefore, he thought of translating it from Bengali to English. The result was 'Gitanjali'."

Similarly, Rabindra Sangeet should not be confined to Bengali-speaking people only, he asserted. He added, "Even though 'Gitanjali' was translated, it was in prose, not in verse. As a result, except for one or two songs of Rabindra Sangeet - like 'Ogo Ma Tomay Deke Deke...' sung by Debabrata Biswas, none of the songs gained much popularity, because they were not poetically rhythmic."

"Having realised this, I decided to translate a few songs and make the sweetness and rhythm of his songs accessible to everyone. With that in mind, I have translated 40 songs. The book titled 'Theme of Devotion' was published last year. Many people have written introductions to it. Amartya Sen – the Nobel Laureate, is one of them. Renowned academician Pabitra Sarkar has also written an introduction," Dutta said.

He said, "Whether my translations have been successful or not will be understood only when the artists sing these songs in English. Around five-six songs in the book were sung by some artists for my YouTube channel. By listening to them, I hope people will know how the songs turned out, whether they found sweetness, or whether the emotions were expressed. I always try to stay in touch with literature-loving and music-loving people, so that Tagore songs can be reached to people of all languages."