Rabindernath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) has been a seminal figure of the Indian Literary and Cultural scene. His vast and versatile literary contribution includes a large number of short stories that are highly reflective of the sociocultural climate of his times and yet convey ideas and feelings that are perennially relevant to a humanitarian society. Interestingly, the translation world testifies to a history of over one hundred years of English translation of Tagore's Bengali short stories. The paper concentrates on this significant body of translated literature and bases itself primarily on the source text of Galpaguchchha, which is a collection of ninety short stories composed by Tagore. The short stories of Rabindranath are a rich source of cross-cultural transmission. That the stories have been translated into English for more than a century now and the translation activity in this sphere still continues, is a phenomenon which merits serious reflection. Keeping in view the complexities of linguistic and cultural transferences, the paper discusses the location of this translated literature and attempts a collation of various target language texts. This has been done by analyzing the nature of the stories selected for translation together with the probable reasons for the same and by presenting a comparative study of portions of some of the translations to highlight the translational complexities and nuances. The task to locate and collate the translated short stories, which belong to both the pre- and post-independent years of Indian history, naturally takes into account the complications that develop out of colonial and post-colonial situations. Besides, as over the years, the stories have been translated by Indians as well as non-Indians, the issues like what gets translated, who translates, and for whom, automatically arises in the course of the projection. Finally, the paper endeavours to see beyond the politics of translation and explores the potential of such...