Underlying Aspects in Tagore’s Translation Of Red Oleanders: A Critical Reading

Abstract

Though Rabindranath Tagore’s works have been studied and praised for decades around the world, his struggles to reconcile cultural as well as linguistic differences between English and his native tongue, Bengali through translations of his works have largely been overlooked. This paper though a comparative study between Tagore’s drama Raktakarabi and its translated version Red Oleanders, seeks to find out how Tagore deals with various cultural, literary and linguistic issues that have arisen during the translation and whether the differences between two languages with distinct natures and unique histories have forced him to make fundamental changes to the play. The research also aims to critically look at the reasons behind Red Oleanders’ apparent failure in the west and takes into account relevant translation theories to discuss how various changes to the play have contributed to creating stark contrasts between the original and the translation.