Saturday, October 8, 2011

Rabindranath and Yeats

Informing Yeats about the attempts of holding a dinner by India Society, Rothenstein invited  Yeats to meet Rabindranath. At this Yeats made the appointment on 25th June, " Thursday at 7.30 with pleasure. many Thanks, I have been in copious correspondence with Rolleston about the dinner." On 27th June Yeats met with Rabindranath for the first time at Rothenstein's house in the dinner. Yeats wrote Florence Furr on that day, "I do not think I can get to you this afternoon ... at 7.30 I dine with Rothenstein to meet Tagore the Hindoo poet."
Rabindranath wrote the incidence to Kshitimohan Sen on the next day (28th June), "Yesterday I had a dinner with Yeats, an English poet. He read some translation of my poetry in prose form. He recited nicely with proper melody.I don't have faith on my English knowledge but he said- if anybody says that he will improve this writing, I say, he does not know anything of literature....Yeats will edit  my translation in prose form and will arrange for printing after writing an Introduction to it."
Stopford Brook and Bradely expressed the same feeling. Bradely wrote Rothenstein,
"It looks as though we have at last a great poet amongst us again" Stopford Brook wrote, " I have read them with more than admiration, with great gratitude, for their spiritual help and for the joy they bring and confirm, and for the love of beauty which they deepen far more than I can tell. I wish I were worthy of them"
Remembering all these  Rabindranath wrote Rothenstein on 26 Jan 1932,
" ,,,then came those delightful days when I worked with Yeats ( got Nobel prize on Dec 1923),"  Rabindranath wrote Thomas Sturge Moore (1870-1944) and  Robert Trevelyan  (1872-1951),
"Yeats and Rothenstein had a Bengalee poet on view during the last days I was in London. I was first priveleged to see him in Yeats' room. His unique subject is " the love of God'. When I told Yeats that I found his poetry preposterously optimistic he said, "Ah, you see, he is absorbed in God," The poet himself is a sweet creature beautiful to the eye in a silk turban...Speaks very little, but looks beneficient and intelligent.""