Asia's greatest poet and dramatist

146th birth anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore:

by Premaranjith Tilakaratne

My first encounter with the works of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore happened in Sri Palee Horana - a sort of replica of Shanthi Nikethan - established by a great admirer of Gurudev the late Mr. Wilmot A. Perera - a philanthropist and an educationist.

I joined Sri Palee Vidyalaya in 1950 as a fifth standard student, nine years after the death of Gurudev at the age of 80. As a junior student I was exposed to Rabindra Sangeeth there - unfortunately not as a performer, but as a sensitive listener.

The school anthem happened to be based on "Ekna Chalore" a melody composed by Gurudev himself, not to mention that so many Bengali songs and their Sinhala versions were played on Sitars and Estrajs and vocally rendered by students during term-end concerts and in stage-plays produced by the late maestro W. B. Makuloluwa himself a product of Shanthi Niketan.

As a music enthusiast my taste and appreciation of music vastly improved in this atmosphere. Apart from my sensitivity to music I had the chance of reading some poems and short stories written by Gurudev as some of his literary works were prescribed in our school curriculum.

Our present generation of school children sadly miss these jewels of literature. And it is this literary vacuum which has contributed to the present day degeneration of aesthetic values.

During the sixties we also had the chance of watching three famous films based on stories written by the Gurudev. They were "Kabuliwalah" produced by the talented Hindi film director Bimal Roy and the other two being "Charulatha" and "Theen Kanya" directed by the outstanding Bengali film maker Sathyajith Ray Incidentally Gurudev's Nobel prize winning poetry book "Geethanjalie" was translated into Sinhala prose as early as 1947 and his classic novel "Gora" had its translation in the seventies.

However, Gurudev's works have not been sufficiently translated into Sinhala during the recent past.

Post office

Now let me explain my own experience with regard to the printing of "Tapal Hala" - the Sinhala translation of Gurudev's "Post Office". My script had won the Best Translation Award at the 2003 State Drama Festival and I thought this achievement along with the prestige of the Great Poet would ensure that the publisher would jump at the idea of publishing it.

However, its passage was not that smooth. The publisher's first reaction was that playscripts are not in demand as the normal reader lacks the capacity to visualize or enjoy them through reading. Secondly I was told that the memory of Gurudev Tagore has faded among the present day generations. Both these reasons I could not simply reject.

However, he agreed to publish it against all odds. Recently when I offered to translate some of the best short stories written by the Gurudev no publisher was willing to accept their publication on the ground that short stories are not in demand whoever the author. Further one publisher told me that Tagore is now outdated. How can that be? Can humanism be outdated? Then someone would be able to claim that even Buddhism is outdated.

But I was helpless and I had to reluctantly agree to undertake the translation of a book written by another clever story-teller ie. R. K. Narayan. Forgive me for he is also an Indian.!

I have repeated the word Great Poet rather than calling him the Great Dramatist. Of course, Gurudev being a prolific writer completed almost 60 plays, 90 short stories and several novels during his life time. He could easily be compared to a dramatist like Henrick Ibsen of Norway or August Strindberg of Sweden.

In the case of these two dramatists and their counterparts in Europe their dramatic works could be easily translated into the widely known English language as they were mostly written in prose.

Although Gurudev was undoubtedly influenced by the theatrical form of Shakespearean drama at the start, he was basically as Indian artist. He was inspired by the classical Sanskrit drama and he transformed the rural theatrical traditions like the Bengali "Yatra" to form the basis of the modern Indian theatre. So his contribution to Indian theatre is immense and unique.

His plays were written in the Bengali language which was not widely used as Hindi. They were not easily translatable into English as in the case of plays written by Ibsen, Strindberg or even Chekov in view of the disparity between the little known Bengali and the Western languages and also due to cultural differences and dramatic styles.

Especially the lyrical quality of Bengali verse could not be easily rendered in English. It is said that even the translations done by the Gurudev himself were not effective as their originals. It is no surprise. Even if the Four Vedas are translated into English can they ever be recited in the same tone? Can they evoke the same emotions?

Not at all. The same argument applies to our own Sandesha poems like Selalihiniya and Guttilaya.

I think I have explained why Western theatre critics do not consider Gurudev Tagore as one of the best playwrights in the world. How can they when they were not equipped to appreciate Gurudev's grammar and style of theatre. Same thing happens now in the case of present day Hindi films.

Did the Hollywood ever recognize the merits of brilliant films like Lagan, Devdas, Mangal Pande or Water, to name a few? Films that represented the heart and soul of India like "Mother India" and "Moghul E Azam" were also ignored those days. This shows that there is a basic difference between the Oriental idiom and the Western mode.

With the result the aesthetic standards formulated by the Western pundits should not be applied to assess the merits of artistic works in the Orient although technological advances have to be accepted wherever they originate.

However, in 1913 when Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore received the Nobel prize for Literature for his classical poem "Geethanjalie" he was admired as the Greatest Poet ever to emerge from Asia. His talents were not confined to poetry alone.

He was a multi-faceted genius namely, a visionary, a social reformer, an educationalist, a novelist, a short-story writer, a music composer, a painter and above all a versatile dramatist.

Now as for Gurudev's theatrical activities he started in 1881 with "Walmiki Prathiba" a musical drama and wrote about 60 plays during a span of 60 years producing most of them himself. His repertoire contained in all, a variety of styles such as poetic drama, dialogue drama, and his own creations like dance drama and the seasonal drama.

So as compared to Gurudev none of his counterparts in the Western world were able to create such a variety of dramatic forms. This alone proves his versatility as a dramatist.

Most of the European dramatists were essentially trapped in either Realism or Melodrama while Gurudev resorted to a kind of Oriental symbolism through which he tried to elevate the minds of spectators for them to understand the truth of nature and man's relevancy to infinity.

Since we were infants or not born when Gurudev lived and therefore we were not fortunate enough to enjoy a Tagore play being performed. Here I would like to quote the impressions of an Oxford educated young man who after having watched Gurudev Tagore's dance drama "Sapmochan" at the Tower Hall Theatre on the Wesak Full Moon Day in 1934 wrote a review to Ceylon Daily News: The review goes like this.

"The curtain went up and my first impression was one of aesthetic satisfaction at the setting and the grouping, which had the simplicity and the beauty which Greek drama alone has yet been able to achieve...

The music started low and soft and the slow movement of the dance... the music fused into the mute beauty of rhythmical movement. Love and wrath and sorrow and joy and chivalry - all human emotions find their place in this play and the delicate and sure touch with which they are conveyed by the music and dancing is a revelation of art at its highest..." This comment was made by none other than S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike who was destined to become the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka in 1956.

Some of Gurudev's plays like "The Post Office" "Chitra" "Sacrifice" "King of the Dark Chamber" and "Red Orleanders" were translated into English and staged in the West. However, Gurudev's reputation as a dramatist reached its peak with the publication of "The Post Office". W. B. Yeats the great Irish poet who had also won the Nobel prize wrote a preface to the "Post Office" calling it a masterpiece capable of evoking to the right audience an emotion of gentleness and peace.

He also thought that it was a perfectly constructed playlet. Anita Desai the famous Indian writer and critic is quoted to have said: "In appearance the play is modest as a dewdrop; in effect it is as profound as the ocean." "The Post Office" had such a universal appeal that it was translated into several European languages often by eminent writers like Andre Guide - another Nobel prize winner.

"The Post Office" was without songs unlike most of Tagorean drama and therefore easily translatable. When Gurudev wrote it his wife Mirnalini, the youngest son and his daughter had recently died of disease and he in his loneliness was contemplating over death.

Therefore this play reveals the Gurudev's insight into the worldly phenomenon of death. Naturally "The Post Office" relates the story of a trapped dying child who ventures to dream in the immediate presence of death. According to Gurudev death is not the final phase of man who is destined to return to the great ocean of truth where there is neither light or darkness nor sound or silence.

In a way Amal the protagonist in the play symbolises man who is waiting for death but still dreaming for things to happen. This play reveals an aspect of Gurudev's philosophy on life through a simple human situation. Whereas Western drama always emphasizes the individual Gurudev brings out the harmony of nature and man's relationship to the universe.

Condensed from a speech delivered by the writer at the Indian Cultural Centre, Colombo.