Joe Winter - Translations

Translations

In addition to poetry of his own, Winter has published translations of Rabindranath Tagore's Song Offerings (Gitanjali) and other works. In collaboration with Devadatta Joardar, he also translated Tagore's autobiographical Atmaparichay under the title Of Myself.

Winter translated Rupasi Bangla of poet Jibanananda Das. Other poems of Das translated by him have been collected in a book titled Naked Lonely Hand. He also translated songs of Lalan Fakir into English which were published in The Statesman. Winter's The Golden Boat, a collection of Tagore poems (Sonaar Tori) in English translation, has been published by Anvil Press.

Below is a translation of a poem by Jibanananda Das, who is said to be the most difficult of all modern Bengali poets to translate:

SHE
She called me to her and said
"The river-water
is your eyes' faded cane-berry colour;
from weariness, from blood,
it soothes the ground around, makes new;
the river here is you."
"Might it be Dhanshiri?"
I asked the kingfisher.
The river had been given its name by her.
I seek the deep girl now: but she
adrift on water's endless stair
is out somewhere.
An aeon ago within an endless interleaf of white and black—from Time's interior,
in love with fish and soul and kingfisher,
a woman appearing . . . if she had not been
a 24-carat-city-girl, in love with the bright lights, she—
she would have been the Dhanshiri.