Jibanananda Das - Jibanananda in English Translation

Jibanananda in English Translation

Translating Jibanananda Das (JD) poses a real challenge to any translator. It not only requires translation of words and phrases, it demands 'translation' of colour and music, of imagination and images. Translations are a works of interpretation and reconstruction. When it comes to JD, both are quite difficult.

However people have shown enormous enthusiasm in translating JD. Translation of JD commenced as the poet himself rendered some of his poetry into English at the request of poet Buddhadeb Bose for the Kavita. That was 1952. His translations include Banalata Sen, Meditations, Darkness, Cat and Sailor among others, many of which are now lost. Since then many JD lovers have taken interest in translating JD's poetry into English. These have been published, home and abroad, in different anthologies and magazines.

Obviously different translators have approached their task from different perspectives. Some intended to merely transliterate the poem while others wanted to maintain the characteristic tone of Jibanananda as much as possible. As indicated above, the latter is not an easy task. In this connection, it is interesting to quote Chidananda Dasgupta who informed of his experience in translating JD :

Effort has of course been made to see that the original's obliqueness or deliberate suppression of logical and syntactical links are not removed altogether. Sometimes Jibanananda's very complicated and apparently arbitrary syntax has been smoothed out to a clear flow. On occasion, a word or even a line has been dropped, and its intention incorporated somewhere just before or after. Names of trees, plants, places or other elements incomprehensible in English have often been reduced or eliminated for fear that they should become an unpleasant burden on the poem when read in translation.

Small wonder that Chidananda Dasgupta took quite a bit of liberty in his project of translating JD.

Major books containing poems of Jibanananda in English translation, as of 2008, are given below:

• Ahmed, Mushtaque : 'Gleanings from Jibanananda Das', 2002, Cox’s Bazaar Shaitya Academy, Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh.
• Alam, Fakrul : 'Jibanananda Das - Selected poems with an Introduction, Chronology, and Glossary', 1999, University Press Limited, Dhaka.
• Banerji, Anupam : 'Poems : Bengal the Beautiful and Banalata Sen by Jivanananda Das', (Translated and Illustrated by Anupam Banerji), 1999, North Waterloo Academic Press, 482 Lexington Crescent, Waterloo, Ontario, N2K 2J8, 519-742-2247.
• Chaudhuri, Sukanta (ed): 'A Certain Sense – Poems by Jibanananda Das', Translated by Various Hands, 1998, Sahitya Akademi, Kolkatta.
• Chowdhury, F. L. (ed) : 'I have seen the Bengal's face – Poems from Jibanananda Das' (An anthology of poems from Jibanananda Das translated in English), 1995, Creative Workshop, Chittagong, Bangladesh.
• Chowdhury, F. L. and G. Mustafa (ed) : 'Beyond Land and Time' (An anthology of one hundred selected poems of Jibanananda Das, translated into English), 2008, Somoy Prokashan, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
• Dashgupta, Chidananda : 'Selected Poems - Jibanananda Das', 2006, Penguin Books, New Delhi.
• Gangopadhyay, Satya : Poems of Jibanananda Das, 1999, Chhatagali, Chinsurah, West Bengal, India.
• Seely, Clinton B. : 'A Poet Apart' (A comprehensive literary biography of Jibanananda Das), 1990, Associated University Press Ltd, USA.
• Seely, Clinton B. : 'Scent of Sun' (An anthology of poems of Jibanananda Das in English translation), 2008, — upcoming.
• Winter, Joe : 'Jibanananda Das – Naked Lonely Hand' (Selected poems : translated from Bengali), 2003, Anvil Press Poetry Ltd., London, UK.
• Winter, Joe : 'Bengal the Beautiful', 2006, Anvil Press Poetry Ltd., Neptune House, 70 Royal Hill, London SE10 8RF, UK.