Coruscation: English translation of "Jyoti' ( Bhengechho Duar ) of Rabindranath Tagore. Recitation.

Описание: Tagore penned this poem when he was visiting Allahabad (recently officially renamed Prayagraj) and Bodh-gaya in October, 1914.

Just before writing this poem Tagore expressed his mental anguish and spiritual malaise, that he was going through, in three letters - two to his friend Charles Freer Andrews (An Englishman popularly known in India as 'Deenabandhu' - friend of the poor) and one to his son.

This poem is about vanquishing the gloomy despair that he was going though at that time, and that was trying to cripple and blind his mental world.

The translation in this video is a very free translation. With my subjective interpretation, I tried to capture the spirit rather than the words of this poem.

I have used the metaphors of ball-and-chain, dungeon, stygian gloom and Sisyphus to indicate the mental incarceration and agony that Tagore was hinting at.

Mythological references:
Rudro: In Indian mythology, Rudra (Rudro in Bengali pronunciation) is a severe form of the deity Shiva who, in his burning anger, annihilates the dark evils of the world.
Sisyphus: In Greek mythology Sisyphus the king of Corinth was condemned in the underworld to roll an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll back every time it approached the top.

The photo of Tagore taken by Sukumar Ray (father of Satyajit Ray) and used in this video, hints at how Tagore might have looked like, when he wrote this poem.

The original Bengali poem, can be recited as poem, or sung as a song without any change of lyrics.
In my humble free-translation, I have no pretension of trying to make it a song, although one can try to recite it as a poem.

My recitation of the original Bengali version can be found here:
   • Jyoti - Tagore - Bengali Recitation - জ্যো...