A Nobel work

While Gitanjali has been translated into English,much of India is still in the dark about it,because of a lack of translation into other regional languages. But the Marathi-speakers can breathe a sigh of relief. Albert D’Souza,a retired geography professor,has translated Tagore’s finest work into Marathi. “The common man does not know about Gitanjali because it is not accessible to him. In this way,he is missing out on something that is culturally and aesthetically very beautiful. I am merely making these poems more within reach,” says D’Souza.

Gitanjali literally translates into ‘an offering of songs’,and contains 103 poems. “Gitanjali is one of the most important works by an Indian because it introduced Indian literature to the West,” says D’Souza. However,this book,titled Geet Bhavanjali,is not a mere reworded version of the original – D’Souza has tried to make the poems as straightforward as possible. “A word-to-word translation is impossible because there are many words or phrases that cannot be expressed in Marathi – a lot of emotion and thought would be lost. Thus,I have translated the poems,trying to capture as much of the original as possible,” he says,adding,“The important thing in translation is that the spirit of the original should not be lost.” The book,which will be released on October 2,includes other changes as well. “The original Gitanjali doesn’t have titles for the poems,they are just numbered. However,I have named each poem,using the underlying theme of each as its title. I have also simplified a lot of the poems,” says D’Souza.

After completing his Bachelors and Masters in Pune,D’Souza was selected as a Fullbright Scholar,and he visited the University of Minnesota for research,before working as a senior consultant at Operation Research Group. In 1986,he founded the Mahila Mahavidyalaya,the first women’s college in Satara district of Maharashtra,where he retired as the principal in 2002. Many of his published books relate to his field of study,Geet Bhavanjali is his first venture into a genre beyond. However,he is wary about translating more of Tagore’s works. “It took me many years to translate Gitanjali. If I decide to tackle another of his works,I would need a lot of help with the translations,” he laughs. Incidentally,he is currently translating Kudalini Mahayog from Hindi to Marathi.

D’Souza finished the book around a year ago,but he waited before getting it published so that it could coincide with Gurudev’s 150th birth year.