chitra varnan on rabindranath tagore
Answers
Answer:
Tagore in The Netherlands
Liesbeth Meyer
In my search for Dutch translations of Rabindranath Tagore's work in the Netherlands, I discovered some facts that may interest Tagorephiles the world over. This article describes these findings, and also includes the transcripts and scans of some letters exchanged between Tagore and Frederik van Eeden who had introduced Tagore to the Netherlands.
Frederik van Eeden
Tagore's work was translated by Dutch authors as well as by some Belgian writers. The Dutch language is also spoken in the northern part of Belgium, which is situated south of the Netherlands. The person who introduced Tagore to the Netherlands was Frederik van Eeden (1860-1932). He was a young physician practising medicine and psychiatry, and had already written several poems and plays of high quality during the 1880s and 1890s. His work was spiritually and deeply connected with Nature. No wonder Frederik van Eeden was a great admirer of Rabindranath Tagore. He even met him while Tagore visited the Netherlands in 1920. Van Eeden then wrote the following words in his diary:
"Sunday, September 19th. I met Tagore, I awaited him at the railway station. The first thing I saw was his shining grey hair in the compartment. He noticed me and it seemed as if he recognized me. He is a fine honourable figure. He was dressed in grey, wearing a blue robe and a high black cap on his head. He wore eye-glasses. His voice is soft and pleasant to listen to. It sounds somewhat high of tone and a bit breathless. He has his hair and beard long. He spreads a strong influence of purity and serenity. It is as though he is surrounded by a fresh, clean and healthy atmosphere. And his appearance is in a stately way and very much in harmony. He is a little bit taller than I am, and one year younger. But in the presence of his honour I felt like a street-boy, with my cap, my plain trousers and my red shoes. The ticketman from the railway station, who knows me well, asked: "This must be a very highly placed person, doctor Van Eeden?" "Yes" I said, "very highly placed indeed". I have never known any person with such a "presence" which everyone should feel such respect for. Tagore enjoyed himself in the bright cloudy sky and the low landscape just as flat as Bengal."
It is known that Frederik van Eeden felt somewhat disappointed with his meeting with Tagore. Van Eeden also felt a little inferior compared to Tagore, as we can see in the writings in his diary mentioned above. But after Tagore's visit, which lasted for about a week, Van Eeden wrote a positive article in a well known Dutch newspaper on Tagore's visit to the Netherlands.
In 1913 the first translation Frederik van Eeden did was of the Gitanjali from Song-Offerings. This version of Gitanjali was called Wij-Zangen in Dutch and it was reprinted many times. New editions were published in: 1914, 1917, 1919, 1920, 1933, 1950, 1957, 1973, and 1976.
As Gitanjali is considered the most famous work of Tagore, because of the Nobel Prize, it is no surprise that other authors have translated this into Dutch as in several other languages around the world. In 1984 a Belgian writer named Wilfred Gepts published his version called Een fluitje in het riet. A version of Gitali was made directly from Bengali into Dutch in 1996 by Victor A. van Bijlert, called Toen jij de snaren spande.