Rabindranath Tagore in Urdu Literature By : Prof.(Dr) Shahnaz Nabi Head & Iqbal Chair Professor Department of Urdu University of Calcutta When Rabindranath Tagore received Nobel Prize (1913) for his poetic collection “Geetanjali” , he got prominence not only in his own language and literature but was widely acclaimed in other Indian and Foreign languages also. Urdu writers too, accepted him generously and started translating him in Urdu. Though most of the Urdu writers had no knowledge of Bengali language but they were eager to know the contents of Geetanjali. They translated Tagore from English. One of such translators is Neyaz Fatehpuri. Niaz Fatehpuri (1884-1966) was an Urdu poet and writer. He was also the founder and editor of Nigar which he turned into one of the most prestigious Urdu literary journals in the Indian sub-continent When Neyaz saw Geetanjali he was overwhelmed with joy and comments that though he has the translated version of Tagore in his hands but it is very obvious that Tagore has a full command on both language and imaginationwhich is of a high quality. He immediately translated Tagore in Urdu and brought out the collection of Tagore’s poetry as “ Arz-e-Naghma” ( The expression of songs)., in 1914. Neyaz says in introductory note that “These poems are very musical. It is that natural music which is the first element not only in human beings but in any other creation of God and which gets stirred and ones feel that he or she is out of this world. Tagore has used his musical sense to the utmost and there is no single poem which is devoid of rhythm and musical fervor. Even sometimes he (Tagore) calls God a known or unknown musician.” Neyaz further says that one day he was sitting with Akbar Allahabadi ( a famous Urdu poet -1846-1921) with English translation of Geetanjali . Akbar saw Tagore’s photograph and said ‘ it resembles the picture of Khammaj (ragini)’. There is no doubt that if music can be transformed in language and if it becomes the expression of thoughts, Tagore’s poetry will beincluded in that.”
Page-2 Neyaz was also impressed with the way Tagore depicted nature. He appreciates Tagore’s sense of color. Neyaz says “ When he describes the stormy nights, he creates the whole atmosphere of annoyance, dreadfulness, turbulence, sadness and horror which can affect a person’s mental condition. When he wants to show spring, he takes us to a world of color, fragrance, beauty and music. When he describes humidity, one feels thirsty. Thus whenever he wants to describe a weather he brings appropriate words and creates the whole atmosphere so vividly that colors are never out of his reach.” For Neyaz, Tagore’s greatness lies in the selection of words and the newness of his similes and metaphors, his simplicity in the expression of thoughts, his intensity of love and his craftsmanship in depicting nature. Abdur Rahman Bijnori(1885-1918) a renowned Urdu writer ,was also very impressed with Tagore. Apart from Urdu, Bijnori was conversant with at least four languages, Arabic, Persian, English and German. His doctoral thesis, ‘Sources of Islamic Jurisprudence’, was written in the German language. Bijnori died at a young age of 33 in Bhopal. When Geetanjali was published and Tagore was awarded Nobel Prize, Bijnori was in England .He felt the warmth of the people and the honor that was brought by Tagore to the Indian community. He describes the incidence of a book shop where he was a regular customer. Bijnori says “ When I entered into the shop, where I was a regular customer, the shop-keeper introduced me to the other buyers and said, ‘ Meet this fellow. He is from Tagore’s country.” Everybody congratulated me overwhelmingly, “ congrats to you and your country India.” One of the ladies, picking up Geetanjali, said, “ Whether these translations are up to the mark or not.”? A man asked,” what does Geetanjali mean ? Is it correct grammatically.?” Another woman showing Tagore’s photograph, commented,” is he the poet..? He looks so gracious.” Bijnori says that one day when he went to a party which was mainly of poets, he heard a poets saying ,” After reading Tagore, I have put my pen down. What will I write after such poetry.” From England, Bijnori went to Almania. Here also he saw people applauding Tagore. Bijnori says that within a short span of time Tagore’s biography was published and his poetry was translated in Roman, Serbian, Hungarian languages. When Bijnori returned to India he was of the view that perhaps the Indian writers have also started translating
Page-3 Tagore in their languages but he was depressed to see the callousness of the Indian writers. Bijnori says, “When I returned to India I was sure that Tagore’s poetry must have impressed the Indian writers too but I was shocked to see that the highly qualified class of Indian society does not know even his name and the elite class was avoiding his qualities.” In the foreword of a book Gul-e-Naghma ( Collection of Tagore’s poetry translated into Urdu by Abdul Aziz Khalid) Bijnori says that he wanted to translate Tagore extensively in prose poetry but he could translate only a few. The translated poems of Bijnori are included in his books “ Baqiyaat-e-Bijnori” & “Yaadgar-e-Bijnori”. Bijnori not only translated Tagore himself but he also persuaded others to translate Tagore into Urdu. One of the famous freedom fighters and Bijnori’s close friend Asif Ali translated Tagore’s “Chitra” which was regularly published in a monthly magazine of Delhi “Tamaddun” from June to September, 1919. Tagore’s novel“ Chokher Bali” was translated by Syed Abid Hossain and published by Sahitya Akademi(1913). His novel “Gora” was translated into Urdu and was published by both private publishers and Sahitya Akademi. When Bijnori became the Educational Adviser of the Government of Bhopal he persuaded his friend Mufti Mohammed Anwarul Haque, who was the then director of education department to translate Tagore’s works. Anwarul Haque translated Tagore’s one of the plays which was published in 1926. It seems that Neyaz was also prompted by Bijnori. In 1935, Makhdoom Mohiuddin , (1908-1969) a revolutionary poet of Hyderabad wrote a book on Tagore. Makhdoom was the founder of Progressive Writer’s Union in Hyderabad . He was a Marxist and active supporter of Telengana movement. In his book,” Tagore aur unki shairi” Makhdoom writes, “In modern mechanical age when the humanity has been crushed badly ,when man has become the slave of opportunism, when amidst the crunching noise of machines and tanks every voice has been silenced as a cry silenced in a desert, one could ever have imagined that there will be one such voice that will over come the noise of machines and tanks and will attract even those who have no ears to listen anything….yes…a person has emerged from Bengal whose face is glittering with prophetic illumination and whose poetry has healing touch of a Messiah ….he is Tagore.” According to Makhdoom he loves Tagore’s poetry for two reasons, one the spirituality in his poetry and secondly his style and diction. Makhdoom says that he is writing the book “ Tagore aur unki shairi” because he thinks Tagore has not been understood properly. Makhdoom also tried to point out the influence of Tagore’s poetry on some Urdu poets.
Page-4 The above mentioned book of Makhdoom Mohiuddin is rare now. When I was the Chair-person in-charge of West Bengal Urdu Academy, (Till May, 2011) late Makhdoom Mohiuddin’s son Nusrat Mohiuddin , at my request , sent the Xerox copies of some valuable books of Makhdoom so that these could be published by the West Bengal Urdu Academy It was a sincere effort to save the rare books, make them available to the new generation after reprint and pay a tribute to one of the important writers of the country.. When I left West Bengal Urdu Academy, the matter of the rare books of Makhdoom was about to go to the press for reprint.. I hope, the books will be soon published by the new governing body. The Urdu translations of Tagore’s works were also published by a press in Amritsar named “ Pustak Bhandaar”. It published Gora, Raj Rishi, Toofan, etc. Ahluwalia Book Depot. , Delhi published Tagore’s novel in Urdu but the names of the translators are missing. Narain Dutt Sehgal of Lahore also published a translated novel. In 1944, Bharat Pustak Bhandar, Amritsar published collections of translated short stories of Tagore but the names of the translators are missing. .The Star Publications, Delhi, published pocket book size translated works of Tagore. Tagore’s dramas were translated by Asif Ali, Anwarul Haque, Khalil Ahmed, Salik Batalvi, Jamil kandhaipuri,Aasi Ramnagri, Hanif Hashmi,etc. His three dramas were also published by Sahitya Akademi as “teen natak”.(First edition :1962) Sahitya Akademi also published 21 short stories and one hundred one poems of Tagore in Urdu. It is said that many Urdu and Hindi writers who emerged as short story writers in the first decade of 20th century and who wrote about the village life and pathetic conditions of farmers, were greatly influenced by Tagore. The one hundred one poems of Tagore ( First edition, 1966) is translated by Raghupati Sahay Firaq Gorakhpuri (1896 – 1982), one of the finest Urdu poets of 20 th century.. Firaq had no knowledge of Bengali. Perhaps he took the help of either Hindi or English translation of the books. The preface dated 22 nd April, 1957 was written by Humayun Kabir This collection starts with “ Nirjharer swapna bhangya”( Shikast-e-Khwab-eAabshar).The poems have been selected from different poetic collections of Tagore for example, Manasi, Sonar Tori, Blaka, Chitra, Chaitali, Katha-o-Kahini, Kalpana., Shesh lekha, etc.The translator has added a lot of foot-notes to explain in a much better way. The three dramas Daak ghar, Raja, Lal kaner, are translated by Prof. Md. Mujeeb. Though Firaq Gorakhpuri has not written anything about Tagore’s poetry in the book published by Sahitya Akademi, but in one of his articles on Tagore’s poetry ( Aajkal Urdu magazine, Tagore No. May, 1961) Firaq Gorakhpuri says that
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“Recently I have translated Tagore’s one hundred and one poems into Urdu for Sahitya Akademi. Perhaps there are four or five thousand lines in these one hundred and one poems. I have already told that Tagore has written nearly three thousand poems and lyrics. It is really strange that to what extent his brain was fertile that he could think of three thousand topics…..it very often it happens that a poet repeats the same thing or uselessly drags a topic……it happened in Shakespear’s writings too… but the most striking is the fact that Rabindranath Tagore has immense capacity of depicting this world and human life so honestly and sincerely that these lively pictures have made this world a museum for our souls.” The spirituality which is the basic color of Tagore’s poetry, has its roots inArabic, Persian and Urdu poetry. The idea of divine love is common here. Whether it is the poetry of Hafiz or Rumi or Mir, they see their belovedwithin them. Iqbal, who was the contemporary of Tagore, gave a message of continuous effort and untiring energy. Iqbal believed in the human qualities of a human being. Thus the fervor of Sufi poetry is intact in Tagore’s poetry on one hand and the duties of a man towards mankind on the other. Tagore has been extensively translated in Urdu but most of the works are scattered in different Urdu magazines of different time. Even some Urdu poets having profound knowledge of Bengali, translated Tagore directly from Bengali to Urdu but such translations must have been buried under the dust of time. After partition in 1947 many bilingual poets shifted to East Pakistan ( now Bangladesh) and West Pakistan. It is not known what happened to the valuable Urdu works of such great souls after the fall of East Pakistan in 1971. In order to preserve the literary treasure of Tagore in different languages in general and Urdu in particular, both state and central government have to take initiative and through a cultural exchange in the sub-continent, the scattered works on Tagore could be compiled and preserved. This endeavor will prove how much Tagore was accepted in other Indian languages and how he united the whole world at the platform of literature. As it is said that Tagore was not only a poet and a maker of modern Indian literature but but also the modern Indian mind and civilization, hence to reconnect our broken bonds we have to explore Tagore and the works written to understand him. To preserve Tagore is to preserve our civilization.
Shahnaz Nabi
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