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by Sunanda Mahendra

Out of the number of books written by Dr Pratima Bowes, who was a lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Sussex from 1966 till 1982 when she returned to India, one book titled 'some songs and poems from Rabindranath Tagore' is an exceptional work. Herein she has translated some of the rare poems of Tagore into English from Bengali. This in fact is a rediscovery of the poet Taogore's poems with a long introduction that may suit the modern reader.

Born in Calcutta on 7th May 1861 poet Tagore wrote some of his most significant poems and songs at the age of eighty according to the translator. Though we have not come across a work titled Janmadine (birth day) there appear several of the poet's last poems in it. There are two poems included in this work. The comparatively longer poem rests basically on a spiritual experience of the poet, silently penetrating into the analysis of the self, torn between the two worlds of joy and sorrows.

I felt that I should share this experience with you,

'Standing right at the end of the courtyard

where is played the drama of creation

I glance from time to time

At the other side, beyond the dark.

Where I was once immersed

In the infinite consciousness of the great Unmanifest. This morning the words of a sage come to my mind.

'Do remove, oh sun, remove

your covering of rays,

so that I may see my true self

in your ultimate, innermost light.'

Let me not cast a shadow

- that appears as truth -

on the appears as truth

on the path of my journey,

I, whose life breath will be absorbed

By the air at the closing of my days,

Whose body will end in ashes.

In the playfield of this earth.

I have at various moments,

tasted immortality through my joys and my sorrows,

Seen the infinite on the screen of the finite

Understood that the final significance of my life

Has always been there,

Where reigns the beauty of the supreme,

Where plays music that is ineffable.

Now, when the doors of my playroom will soon be opened,

I shall leave my obeisance

At the earth's shrine,

Leave there those offerings of my life

The value of which extends beyond death.

(written when the poet was 80 years old)

According to Dr Bowes, Tagore having written 'Janmadine' also had written his last collection titled Seshlekha (last writings). Here it seems that the poet is asking the most fundamental question of all: who am I? One poem goes as

'The sun

On its very first day

Struck by newly emerged existence Asked,

'Who are you?'

No answer was found.

Years passed by.

The last sun of the day

Asked once again,

Standing on the shore of the western sea

Amidst the silence of the evening

The final question -

Who are you?

No response was found.

Tagore's literary activity started early and it continued to the very end, 1941, when he was eighty years old and very ill. He wrote his first verse at the age of eight and his first narrative poem was published when he was fourteen. Even before, his first visit to England at Seventeen began his serious literary activity in poetry, novel, drama, song and narratives. This was the time when he got recognition as a poet. Quite a number of notes have been written about his stay in England. Tagore too believed that he had time to concentrate on his creative mission, while being exposed to the cultural climate he found in England.

After his return from England in 1880 he produced his first drama in music, and according to Bowes, an entirely new thing in Bengali, both in style of music and literary conception. According to Pratima Bowes, it is a misfortune that Tagore's fame happened to be on the Nobel Prize for literature given to his English translation of the Gitanjali. Why? Dr Bowes believes that the work, Gitanjali had created a myth and myth once created dies hard, and that the poet and creative artist Tagore is a mystical and devotional poet which is only a fraction of the truth about him. Perhaps Gitanjali is looked at through a narrow outlook, misunderstanding it as influenced by Old Testament, and Hindu themes.

The tone of the Bengali original work according to Dr Bowes is calm and quite different in approach. For the most part, it treats God as an intimate and beloved friend who in turn awaits love from man and who is not quite complete in his majestic aloneness without this exchange. One of the dominant creative thoughts of Tagore, it seems is that god does not dwell in heaven, but everywhere the man struggles to exist. In this sense a new dimension is interpreted to the God concept, which transcends the mere devotion and religious belief. While Gitanjali is hailed by some and denounced as sugary by others, some of his lesser-known poems such as Balaka (1916) are regarded as a new kind of rhythm that suits the new mood of the post-first world war.

The poetry of Balaka speaks of movement that is inherent in all creation and the need to leave behind all that is dead and sterile in one's search for significance. According to some critics it is in his last work Seshlekha, that he produced his best when not only his thought but also his language had acquired a rare degree of economy, control, precision and sharpness, along with breadth of sympathy and vision.

In the month of May when the whole world celebrates the birthday of the great poet Tagore, may this be a simple tribute from one of his admirers.

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