{"id":8643,"date":"2010-02-18T08:58:49","date_gmt":"2010-02-18T07:58:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deinayurveda.net\/wordpress\/?p=8643"},"modified":"2010-02-18T14:39:53","modified_gmt":"2010-02-18T13:39:53","slug":"martin-kaempchen-tagore-booktipps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deinayurveda.net\/wordpress\/2010\/02\/martin-kaempchen-tagore-booktipps\/","title":{"rendered":"Poetry, Rabindranath Tagore in Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"visitinga<\/span><\/p>\n

www.<\/span>visva-bharati.ac.in<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

><\/span> <\/span>VISVA BHARATI UNIVERSITY<\/span> <<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

> <\/span>TAGORE, GHANDI, INDIA TODAY<\/span> <<\/span><\/a>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

> <\/span>MARTIN KÄMPCHEN & TAGORE BOOK TIPS\u00a0<<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

> <\/span>MAHATMA GHANDI UNIVERSITY<\/span> <<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Rabindranath Tagore (Bengali: \u09b0\u09ac\u09c0\u09a8\u09cd\u09a6\u09cd\u09b0\u09a8\u09be\u09a5 \u09a0\u09be\u0995\u09c1\u09b0) ,(7 May 1861 \u2013 7 August 1941),\u03b3sobriquet Gurudev,was a Bengali polymath. As a poet, novelist, musician, and playwright, he reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As author of Gitanjali and its „profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse“,being the first non-European to win the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature, Tagore was perhaps the most important literary figure of Bengali literature and a mesmerising representative of the Indian culture whose influence and popularity internationally perhaps could only be compared to that of Gandhi whom Tagore named ‚Mahatma‘ out of his deep admiration for him.Read More: > <\/span>HERE <<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Rabindranath Tagore <\/span>(1861-1941) ist der berühmteste Dichter des modernen Indien. 1913 erhielt er als erster Asiate den ><\/span> Li<\/span>t<\/span>eratur-Nobelpreis <<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span> . Sein universales Genie schuf Literatur in allen Gattungen, er gründete eine Schule und Universität, betätigte sich als Schauspieler, Sänger seiner eigenen Lieder, als Maler und Sozialreformer in den Dörfern. Kämpchen hat als erster Tagore in einer repräsentativen Sammlung von fünfzig Gedichten und Liedern, die alle Schaffensperioden umfassen, den deutschsprachigen Lesern vorgestellt.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Tagore besuchte Deutschland dreimal und wurde dort sehr gefeiert. In mehreren wissenschaftlichen Werken untersucht Kämpchen\u00a0 Tagores\u00a0 Verhältnis zum deutschen Geistesleben der zwanziger Jahre. Dieses letzterschienene Buch beschreibt Tagores Beziehungen zu dem Philosophen Hermann Keyserling, zu Kurt Wolff (seinem Verleger), zu Helene Meyer-Franck (seiner Übersetzerin) und Heinrich Meyer-Benfey (seinem profiliertesten Interpreten).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

…..If I were asked who was the greatest poet India has produced, including the greatest of ancient India, Kalidasa, my firm answer would be: \u2018Tagore\u2019 \u2026 It is tragic, however, that his greatness as a poet will never be generally acknowledged, like the greatness of Goethe, Hugo or Tolstoy…..<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

These two sentences by the well-known writer Indian > Ni<\/span>rad Chaudhuri<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/strong> < sum up the fate of Rabindranath Tagore as a literary figure: On the one hand, they emphasise the immense importance his work receives in West Bengal and Bangladesh; on the other hand, they demonstrate the clear limits of his importance. Tagore\u2019s influence does not transcend the confines of the Bengali language. Bengali is spoken by approximately 180 million people in West Bengal and Bangladesh. This is a larger figure than, for example, the entire German-speaking population. Yet, B<\/span>e<\/span>ngali<\/span> <\/span><\/span> is considered a regional language of the Indian subcontinent (with a limited significance even within the context of the subcontinent), whereas German is accepted as a world language, as indeed most European languages are. We are all aware of the political and economic history which created such an imbalance between the languages and the cultures in the world.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Congenial translations needed!<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Hence it entirely depends on the availability of congenial translations whether Rabindranath Tagore\u2019s true worth will be appreciated beyond Bengal. Making Shakespeare, Dante or Tolstoy one\u2019s own with the assistance of excellent translations is comparatively easy. Shakespeare has been translated into German for the last two hundred years with immense success, and is still being translated. But translating Tagore into German does not merely entail two European languages, but two languages which are divided by separate cultures, social contexts, geographical areas and religions. He who wants to translate a poem by Tagore from Bengali to German needs to bridge the gulf which separates India and Germany.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It is not easy for an Indian to admit that their national poet, Rabindranath Tagore, is hardly known in Europe. Although the Indian subcontinent entered the sphere of modern World Literature through Tagore, this has become a fact of history now. Today Tagore is no longer a vibrant, dynamic element of World Literature, he no longer influences the intellectual horizon of a large readership and inspires writers outside Bengal. For Bengalis, Rabindranath Tagore continues to have a powerful, sometimes overbearing cultural presence.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Visiting a youthgroup in Germany, 1930<\/strong> (siehe oben) <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It is virtually impossible to ignore him, even though one may reject him. For Europeans, Tagore represents the distant memory of a Wise Old Man from the East, of an Eastern mystic who arrived in Germany after the First World War to dispense consolation and courage to a people immersed in a deep spiritual and cultural crisis. For less than a decade, Tagore enthused German audiences and readers, after which he sank into oblivion, a process which was aided by the advent of Nazi Germany for which the Indian poet was anathema.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Many Germans may feel that Tagore would best be forgotten. The mystical vagueness of his poems and his lyrical prose may have enthralled European readers for some years, but they could not pass the test of time. These poems were rendered into English by the poet himself and then translated into German by German translators. Tagore\u2019s own English rendering does not merit the term \u201ctranslation\u201d. These texts were at best paraphrases. He transformed his finely chiselled Bengali verses into rhythmical English prose. In the process he often simplified or even trivialised the content by leaving out some of the more complex ideas and evocations and by adding new material. It is generally agreed that, whatever be the inherent worth of these English texts, they do not echo the intricacy and vigour and musicality of Tagore\u2019s original poetry. Hence I call the German version of Tagore\u2019s poetry \u201cdoubly watered-down\u201d: first watered-down by Tagore himself through his English prose texts and then again by adopting them for the German.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

If we examine the kind of poems Tagore selected for translation, we realise that they were predominantly his \u201cspiritual\u201d or \u201cmystical\u201d poems. He must have presumed that they especially appeal to Western readers, and he was not mistaken. But in the bargain, Tagore sacrificed a large spectrum of his themes, styles and moods which he did not present to the non-Bengali public. Tagore\u2019s selection of poems helped to reinforce the image of Tagore as a mystic.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"With<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

With German intellectuals in 1926<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

With German intellectuals in 1926<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In 1921, Rabindranath Tagore visited Germany for the first time. The German people had just suffered a humiliating defeat in the First World War. Burdened with the crushing demands made by the Versaille Treaty, they longed for a \u201csaviour\u201d who could re-establish their self-esteem and help them find again meaning in life. Before entering Germany, Tagore expressed that he empathized with the German people in their hour of crisis and that he had come to strengthen her. So there was a clear symbiotic relationship even before Tagore began his month-long trip from city to city. Tagore mesmerized and fascinated his German audiences. Wherever he spoke, the halls were packed. Indeed, the newspapers reported scuffles and regular fights by people who were refused entry. The German press rose to the occasion by reporting Tagore\u2019s every movement.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Tagore\u2019s poetry had a direct appeal to Germans of that generation because his poetry (or whatever he chose to give to the West) was exotic, had a romantic flair, was imbued with spiritual idealism – and yet in all its strangeness it was still easily accessible. His poetry embodied a religious imagery, essentially Vaishnava in character, which was innovative for Western ears. To them, this culture of emotions was unfamiliar in its directness, its eroticism and involvement with nature and the cosmos – and yet, the poetry was totally comprehensible. Tagore himself, attired in his flowing, dark gown and with his white beard and serene face, radiated a certain erotic energy.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Tagore revisited Germany in 1926 and 1930. Although the early biographies of Tagore characterize Tagore\u2019s three visits to Germany as unmitigated success stories, Tagore himself preferred to take a more detached view. In 1921, he wrote to a friend:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It has been a wonderful experience in this country for me! Such fame as I have got I cannot take at all seriously. It is too readily given, and too immediately. It has not had the perspective of time. And this is why I feel frightened and tired at it and even sad.[2]<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The German-speaking press was by no means unanimous in its praise. There were three major points around which the criticism of the press revolved: (1) Tagore, a Hindu, wanted to influence Christians in their faith and ultimately convert them to Hinduism. (2) German writers deserved a slice of the Indian writer\u2019s enormous fame, as they were no less talented and relevant in their writing. (3) Tagore\u2019s seeming \u201coriental lethargy\u201d, \u201cbloodlessness\u201d, \u201cIndian mildness\u201d was inimical to German or European \u201cdynamism\u201d, to its \u201caction-oriented\u201d mindset. At that point of history, this European mindset was deperately needed to support the reconstruction of the German nation after the First World War.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Rilke, Zweig, Thomas Mann, Hesse<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The adulation Tagore received from the masses rather deterred serious German fellow writers from making an evaluation of Tagore\u2019s literary merit. They even shied away from meeting him. Yet, there were two of Germany\u2019s eminent contemporary writers who met Tagore and two others who took a serious interest in him and acclaimed him as a figure of consequence.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Let me first turn to Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926). Even a few months before Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize, Rilke recognized Tagore\u2019s importance which he expressed in a letter to Lou Andreas-Salom\u00e9[3]. Rilke had heard another famous writer, the Frenchman Andr\u00e9 Gide, read out his French translation of Gitanjali which had impressed Rilke considerably. Further, Rilke mentioned his praise of Tagore in a letter to the German publisher Kurt Wolff[4]. At the time, Wolff had just secured the English manuscript of Gitanjali for his publishing firm and it was already being translated. Quick to see his advantage, Wolff offered to Rilke that he translate Gitanjali into German, as Gide did into French. Rilke considered the offer deeply for some time and then rejected it. This is the explanation he gave in his letter to Kurt Wolff:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I do not find within myself that irrefutable call for the proposed assignment, from which alone could emerge a definitive and responsible work. Although much in these stanzas has a familiar ring, it seems, so to speak, to be borne towards me on a tide of unfamiliarity\u2026 This may be partly due to my meagre acquaintance with the English language.[5]<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Rilke is not known to have commented on Rabindranath Tagore thereafter, not even in 1921 when the latter was in the zenith of his fame.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Stefan Zweig (1881-1941), the Austrian writer, and Thomas Mann were introduced to Rabindranath Tagore in the summer of 1921. True to their temperament, their reactions to Tagore were quite opposite to each other. Zweig, the suave cosmopolitan and altruistic humanitarian, had visited India in the winter of 1908\/09. He was appalled by the poverty and misery he saw and later bemoaned the feeling of \u201cunsurmountable unfamiliarity\u201d[6] that overcame him when he faced India\u2019s tumultuous life. Yet, he maintained an active interest in India\u2019s freedom struggle and in her intellectual life. He also observed Rabindranath\u2019s rise to fame in Europe and exchanged views on him with that other European intellectual with a keenly critical and supportive interest in India, Romain Rolland. So when Kurt Wolff informed Stefan Zweig that Tagore was to change trains in Salzburg en route to Vienna, Zweig who resided in Salzburg, jumped at the chance to meet him. The short meeting was deeply meaningful to Zweig. Returning home, he immediately penned a letter to Wolff in which he wrote:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Thank you very much for the information regarding Tagore\u2019s travel programme. This enabled me to spend half an hour in his company today at Salzburg railway station while he changed trains. Thanks to you, I have encountered this great personality, of whom I formed a strong and profound impression.[7]<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Zweig continued to observe Tagore\u2019s impact on the European public. Zweig unequivocally appreciated Tagore\u2019s message of humanism, while he was critical of Tagore\u2019s ostensible penchant to seek publicity. When Tagore chose to visit the philosopher Count Hermann Keyserling in Darmstadt for a week, Zweig commented that Tagore \u201cwas unwise enough to have his visit publicly announced\u201d[8]. And in 1926 Zweig criticised Tagore for this \u201cnew mania of travelling around Europe as a missionary of the spirit\u201d which he calls a \u201ccontageous disease\u201d[9].<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Thomas Mann (1875-1955) was both less sympathetic and more complex in his reaction to Tagore. Initially, he even refused to meet him. In 1921, Mann was approached by Hermann Keyserling to write an essay on Tagore which was meant to publicize the \u201cTagore-Week\u201d Keyserling planned in Darmstadt. Mann refused and was also unwilling to go and attend Tagore\u2019s lectures. In a letter typical of Thomas Mann, he explained the reasons for his negative response.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Dear and Respected Count Keyserling,<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I cordially thank you for your letter. It exudes so much enthusiasm that I almost packed my bags and went to Darmstadt. However this would have been easier than writing an article, particularly one canvassing for the famous Indian of whom I have, whether you believe it or not, no understanding, or almost none, until now. [\u2026] The image I have always had of him is picturesque but pallid. Surely I do him an injustice in assuming that the subjective pallor of this image reflects reality; in presuming him to be a typical Indian pacifist, animated by a somewhat anaemic humanitarian spirit and a mildness which I deemed almost hostile in the years I spent engrossed in violent emotional conflict. Surely the man is totally different. Since I understand from your letter that he has made a deep impression on you, he must be great.[10]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Thomas Mann alluded to the well-known duality between European strength and Indian \u201cpallor\u201d, \u201cmildness\u201d to which he gave a distinctly negative connotation. The letter was cleverly crafted. Mann had his say on Tagore clearly and then made a rhetorical volte-face by declaring: \u201cSurely the man is totally different. Since [\u2026] he has made a deep impression on you, he must be great.\u201d In this manner, he could pronounce his reservations and still hope not to offend the famous Count.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A few weeks later, however, Thomas Mann was unable to avoid coming face to face with the \u201cpallid\u201d Indian poet. Mann lived in Munich and Tagore arrived in that city for several lecture engagements. Tagore delivered a lecture at the University, and on the next day Kurt Wolff, Tagore\u2019s German publisher, invited some people from the intellectual \u00e9lite to a reception at his home. Thomas Mann and his wife Katja attended both the lecture and the reception. Mann noted down in his diary the impressions of this second day:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

At 11 drove with K[atja] to K.Wolff\u2019s for R.Tagore\u2019s lecture. Select gathering. The impression of a fine old English lady gained strength. His son was brown and muscular – a masculine type. I was introduced, said \u2018it was so beautiful\u2019 and pushed K. forward: \u2018my wife who speaks english better than I\u2019. He did not seem to grasp who I was.[11]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What had happened? Tagore\u2019s long robe and his flowing hair had reminded Mann of a \u201cfine old English lady\u201d which was a rather rude remark. When Mann was introduced to Tagore, he avoided a conversation by pushing his wife forward and claiming that she speaks English better than he and hence should be spoken to. After thus studiously avoiding contact with Tagore, Mann should not have been too surprised that the poet did not recognise his German colleague, the famous Thomas Mann. Yet Mann\u2019s pride must have been bruised.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Hermann Hesse (1877-1962) never met Rabindranath Tagore although one would have expected him, more than anybody else, to seek and maintain a contact with the Indian poet. Hesse had been involved with Indian Thought since his childhood. His parents were Protestant Christian missionaries in South India. His maternal grandfather, Heinrich Gundert, had been a pioneering scholar of the Malayalam language and culture. Hesse, like others in his time, na\u00efvely conceived of India as a country of spiritual perfection and angelic human beings. This romantic notion was bound to be shattered when Hesse set out on his one long trip outside Europe which took him to Sri Lanka and Indonesia in 1911. He was unable to set foot on mainland India as due to illness his trip had to be cut short. But he witnessed Hindu and Buddhist culture. Hesse was disillusioned with Asia, but then his expectations had not been realistic. He published his diary notes and returned to his experience again and again in letters, short stories and essays. Slowly, his disappointment transformed itself into a new vision of India which was less idealistic. Formerly, Hesse had believed in the dichotomy of the \u201cspiritual East\u201d and the \u201cmaterialistic West\u201d. Now he chose to perceive an undercurrent of mysticism in both East and West. He envisioned a spiritual unity encompassing both.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The best-known fruit of Hesse\u2019s Indian experience is his \u201cIndian novel\u201d Siddhartha. When Rabindranath Tagore toured Europe in 1921, Hesse was deeply involved in writing this novel of an Indian spiritual aspirant\u2019s path to fulfilment. He lived in the Ticino mountains in southern Switzerland almost like a hermit. The idea of travelling to Germany or Austria to meet Tagore must have been far from his mind. And yet, Hermann Hesse kept an eye on the intellectual developments of his time. He reviewed three books by Tagore (Gitanjali, The Gardener and The Home and the World) and expressed his views in several letters. The last letter in which Hesse referred to Tagore is from 1957. Hesse was not fascinated by Tagore to the same degree as Stefan Zweig, Romain Rolland and Hermann Keyserling were. Strangely, Hesse considered Tagore\u2019s writing as too European and not of exceptionally high quality, although he did laud the nobility and dream-like beauty of his texts. Hesse did however fully support Tagore\u2019s novel The Home and the World concluding his review with the words: \u201c\u2026the more people read this book the better.\u201d[12]<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In his last letter, Hesse commented on Tagore\u2019s \u201cpartial eclipse in the West\u201d after the Second World War. Hesse opined that Tagore had been \u201ca fashion\u201d in the 1920s and now had to pay the price for being out of fashion. Yet, in some minds and hearts the effects [of reading Tagore] have lived on and borne fruit, and this continuing influence – impersonal, silent and in no way dependent on fame and fashion – may in the final analysis be more appropriate to an Indian sage than fame or personality cults.[13]<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"With<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

With his publisher Kurt Wolff in 1921<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Rabindranath Tagore in Germany Today<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We have to return to the question of translations. Translations into German started to appear from 1914 in rapid succession. No sooner did they come out in London, were they taken up by Kurt Wolff. Already in 1921, an eight-volume Collected Works could be published to coincide with Tagore\u2019s first visit to Germany. However, when the devaluation of the German currency set in in 1923, the entire book market began to collapse. Kurt Wolff continued to publish new volumes of translation until 1925, and then he stopped. In 1929, his firm went bankrupt. There were several persons who had prepared translations of Tagore\u2019s works for Kurt Wolff. From among them, Helene Meyer-Franck was the most dedicated and diligent. From 1918, she became the sole translator of Tagore into German. Her husband, Heinrich Meyer-Benfey, and she brought out his Collected Works.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

After Kurt Wolff desisted from publishing, a new phase began for Helene Meyer-Franck: she learnt Bengali for the sole purpose of reading Tagore, her \u201cdear Master\u201d, in the original. It was a lonely fight in her small town near Hamburg, as she was virtually on her own. However, she learnt to read Bengali sufficiently well to translate into German three novellas and a collection of poetry. The novellas were published as early as 1930, but they left no visible trace because of the Nazi Reich emerging in 1933. Helene Meyer-Franck had to wait until after the Second World War before she was able to publish her second slim volume. Soon thereafter, first her husband and then she died. As a result, her initiative to translate Tagore directly from Bengali was not continued, and there was nobody to emulated her. In the 1950s, the old translations from English, published in the 1920s, were republished in West-Germany, and in some cases new translations of these weak and flawed English texts came out.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Communist East-Germany had a special relationship with Tagore. The latter\u2019s internationalism endeared him to the regime, and his work was given political weight. Tagore\u2019s books were translated into German in much larger numbers than in the West. Yet, these translations were generally of doubtful quality. Several anthologies contained translations from the English and from the Bengali side by side; other books were translated via Russian. Then there were so-called team-translation, i.e. a Bengali knowing little German and a German knowing little or no Bengali teamed up to produce a translation. None of these methods were at all satisfactory, and they did not serve to enhance Tagore\u2019s reputation as a figure of World Literature. As far as I can see, only one person in erstwhile East-Germany mastered Bengali well enough to produce a competent translation on her own; that was Gisel Leiste, who translated one major novel, Gora.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It was not until the 1980s and 1990s that fresh direct translations were brought out, first by Alokeranjan Dasgupta (one volume) and then by Martin Kämpchen (three volumes). They were brought out by small, specialised or by theological publishers. What Tagore needs acutely, however, are mainstream literary publishers who market his works. This need is soon going to be fulfilled by a volume of love poetry, translated by Martin Kämpchen, brought out (in February 2004) by a premier literary publisher, Insel Verlag, in its series Liebesgedichte. Another publisher, Verlag Artemis & Winkler, is scheduled to bring out a larger volume of Tagore\u2019s Selected Works, edited by Martin Kämpchen, in its series of Classics of World Literature.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I believe that in Germany Tagore\u2019s time has now arrived. Apart from the fact that any great literature has a claim to be noticed and respected throughout the world simply because it is great literature, I wish to identify three areas in which Tagore\u2019s ideas and ideals have a strong relevance for us today:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n