Review of: Select Translations of Rabindranath Tagore

“It had rained the day before. It was morning time and the pale sunshine and the fragmentary clouds had been taking turns to paint the near-ripe pre-autumnal paddy fields with their goliath paintbrushes. The spread-out canvas was continually changing colors between a bright yellow hue upon receiving direct sunlight, and a pleasant mellow adumbration upon being smeared with the shadows.” This wonderful description of nature’s hide and seek between the clouds and sunshine after a brief shower is directly translated from the prose ‘Megh O Roudra’ by Rabindranath Tagore.
The translator is A. Datta and that story is named ‘Clouds and Sunshine’. His book ‘Select Translations of Rabindranath Tagore: Volume I’ consists of five short stories and a play by Tagore. The remaining ones are—Finally (Samapti), Haimanti: of Autumn (Haimanti), One Night (Ekratri), Missing My Bejeweled (Monihara) and the three-act play titled, The Crown (Mukut).
The translation is well versed and easy to read, thanks to the lucid writing. Datta has excellently conveyed the subtle beauty and the essence of Tagore’s original work throughout his translation. He writes in the Foreword to this book, “Tagore lived and died in an era of chauvinism and his thoughts as reflected in his writings were stunningly unbiased and objective”. It’s true and this reflects in Datta’s work as he keeps every single mood intact in these stories. Every reader of this book, will be able to catch the original magic of Tagore’s way of telling a story: his love of nature and human kind, philosophy, faith, experiences and insights into life and relationships. Datta’s meticulous effort turns the book into a treasured collection for book-lovers who definitely should dive into it. The book is printed by Pothi.com, India's answer to Amazon's Create Space.