Translating The Untranslatable
Sayan Supratim Das
.. by Rabindranath Tagore Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2015, 252 pp., 450
June 2015, volume 39, No 6

It is said that Rabindranath Tagore had himself remarked that his play Chirakumar Sabha could never be translated. According to him, audiences could misinterpret the relationships presented in the translated play. Translation is understood to be a business fraught with risk. There is much to be lost; the essence of the original writing, the unsaid moral of the story, the very evident sarcasm, the undercurrent humour and sometimes even relationships which are forged in silence. Yet just as an enterprise carries a risk, the other side of the coin displays gains. Here one gains a new audience.

Continue reading this review