Author: Rabindranath Tagore
Translator(s)/Editor: Anindita Mukhopadyay
Publisher: Rupa
Year: 2014
Language: English
Pages: 214
ISBN/UPC (if available): 978129109378
Description
In Sesher Kobita, Rabindranath Tagore knocks away social and familial props just to set a young man and a woman talking to one another. Tagore maps the emotional evolution through a series of scintillating conversations between the two protagonists-Amit Rai and Labanyalata.
Sesher Kobita has many layers: it is an unusual love story on the surface, but the deeper one moves into the story, one realizes that Tagore is subtly slipping in other elements as well. Is love important in marriage? Does marriage leave space, physical and mental, for both the partners? And then there is Tagore’s awareness of the Bengali language itself, with which he plays elaborate language games.
The startlingly contemporaneous engagement with issues of romantic love and the responsibilities and everydayness of marriage is gripping: there may be nods of agreement, or skeptical headshakes, but to avoid reflection on the questions Tagore raises, is impossible.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR:
ANINDITA MUKHOPADHYAY teaches history at the University of Hyderabad. She has translated for research purposes over the last few years. Her Behind the Mask: the Cultural Definition of the Legal Subject in Colonial Bengal 1175-1900 will be published later this year.
Contents
INTRODUCTION
Amit’s Tale
The Collision
Preface
Labanya’s History
Striking up Acquaintance
Beyond Introductions
Matchmaking
Labanya’s Debate
Change of Residence
The Second Sadhana
The Theory of Union
The Last Evening
Apprehension
Dhumketu or Haley’s Comet
Hindrance
Freedom
The Final Ode
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY