|
Literary Review
Tagore unplugged
ANURADHA ROY
FINALLY, early this year, Visvabharati's copyright on Rabindranath Tagore lapsed for good, in all senses of the word, and evidence of that is already in the marketplace. In the most radical departure there could be from Visvabharati's stately Rabindra Rachanabali (The Works of Tagore) Rupa has come out with a series cheekily echoing the name but applying it to whimsical little books of plays, poetry and other writing by Tagore.
The books are a handy size and beautifully printed, with Tagore paintings as motifs on each page. Neither concerned with editorial apparatus (like telling us who the translator is) nor overmuch with proofreading, they nevertheless help break the ice and acquaint the intimidated with one of India's literary geniuses.
He is not so forbidding, he can be fun too. Here is Tagore, in his charming autobiographical account "My Boyhood Days" about a ghost he feared: "Another story was connected with the thick-leaved badam tree. A mysterious Shape was said to stand with one foot on its branches and the other on the third storey cornice of the house. The very atmosphere was so enmeshed in ghostly terrors that I could not put my feet into the darkness under the table without them getting the creeps."
Rabindra Rachnavali series, Rupa Books, Rs. 50 each.
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Literary Review
|
