Hemchandra's translation of Romeo & Juliet
appeared as Charumukh Chittahara Natak in 1864 and
17 years later as Romeo-Juliet. But Hemchandra was basically
a poet and did not think of making his work stage-worthy so that
it reads like a verse drama addressed to the sentiments of the
romantic Bengali middle class. There is neither Shakespeare's
robust blank verse nor the bard's theatricality. It is lyrical
and quite faithful to the original especially where dialogue is
concerned. Hemchandra did get carried away however by the excitement
of the sequence so much so that he sometimes introduces an extra
scene e.g when he splits II. ii into two. Proper names are also
transformed into their nearest Bengali equivalents e.g. Verona
becomes Barana, Capulet becomes Capalat, Montagu becomes Montago,
Paris becomes Parash and so on. Only Romeo and Juliet remain unchanged.
Friar Lawrence is metamorphosed into Mathurananda a Hindu monk
and Brother John is transmogrified as Gonshai, a Hindu priest.
Funnily the graveyard becomes a crematorium. The play is therefore
a translation-cum-adaptation. The two families are like zamindar
families. The preparation for the marriage of Juliet with Paris
is rendered in the guise of such a marriage ceremony in an upper
class Bengali home with all the women gossiping away and typical
Bengali social rituals taking place in Act II iv which becomes
II v in Hemachandra. The play is thus uprooted from its Mediterranean
ambience. Rather incongruously however the word "duel"
is retained. Though odd in the changed social context this must
have sounded a fashionable note to the English-educated Bengali
middle and upper middle class readers; technical words relating
to a duel e.g. 'passado'and 'punto reverso' are however omitted.
In this article I have endeavoured to point out
the intercultural aspect of Hemchandra Bandyopadhyay's Indianized
translation of Shakespeare's The Tempest and Romeo &
Juliet. The texts become paradigms of the paradox that instead
of deleting borders translation reinforces them. Though the borders
are not impregnable, border crossing is done at the cost of losing
some of the goods on the way, although compensatory material is
also accessible.
NOTES
1. See also Sanatkumar Mitra's 'Shakespeare O
Bangla Natak' (Mitra 1983).
2. The note may be translated thus: 'In the olden
times there was among the common folk in England the belief that
such a ring was drawn by fairies; and at night the fairies would
assemble and dance within these rings Nobody would dare to touch
the grass within the rings'.
3. Peary Chand Mitra's Alaler Gharer Dulal (pampered
son of a front ranking family; 1855-57) is a work of fiction in
the picaresque vein of didacticism and humour. Kaliprasanna Sinha's
Hutom Penchar Naksa (Sketches by a watching owl, 1862) Sukumar
Sen in History of Bengali Literature, Sahitya Akademi ,1960, rpt.1992,
p.210 calls the latter "an enjoyable work, if one goes in
for cheap and vulgar wit".
4. Tarja: popular folk song in the form of question
and answer.
Kheure: obscene song; ribaldry.
Kobigan: light song in the form of questions and answers
5. The original Bengali reads: Sekhankar babura
aajkaal bhari hujuge hoye uthechhe; Ghora nach, bibir nach, bhut
naban, sang nachan niye boroi sakharache hoye poreche --- kintu
edike ekjan bhikiri ele ek mutho chal jote na. --- tolchauparigulo
ekbare lop pabar jo hoeychhe, tobuo brahm;ian punditder ek poysha
dite sahajya korlo na.
6. Hemchandra's Bengali runs as follows: Mahasay
balyakal obdhi amar basana achhe je ami ekbar rajatya kori; kintu
prachin desh matroi rajarajrader eto bhir je, tar bhitor matha
gunje probesh korai bhar; tai chirokalta mone mone bhabtum je,
ori modhe chhotokhato nirela desh pai to seikhane ekbar rajotyo
kore ni,ar kemon kore rajotto korte hoy ekbar dekhai.Ei Dwipti
dekhchi, tar samyak upojukto sthan. Eikhane katakguli projar basati
karywe tader uttamroop taribat dite palle ekti ekti ashcharya
janapad srishti hoy. Prachin deshnibasidiger je samasta kusangskar
achhe, tar kichhumatro ekhane probesh katte di na. Amar thake
na, dhon sampattite swattaswatter probhed thake na, she rajye
bibahoroop kuprotha swechhadheen sokol streee sokol purusher ghogya
--- sokol pui sokol streeer karushmyo, abal btidhho banita sokolei
chaushotti kolaye kathaye byutpanna, hingsha dwesh, bishad bisambad
, juddha bigraha rajyamodhey ekebare bilupto hoy; protaronashunyo
satyabadi janagan porohitayshi paropokari hoy; --- swatasidhha
dharmajyotite sakolei nirudbeg shantochitto thake. Rog, shok,
taap, chinta, daridra nirmool hoy ebang sukh swachhanda sarbatre
birajito hoye preeti sampadan kore.
REFERENCES
---- (1964) Shakespeare in India (Catalogue)Calcutta:
The National Library.
Jagadish Nandi (1998) Banga Sanskriti Sampute
Shakespeare Howrah: Muktadhara Prokasoni.
Mitra, Sanat Kumar (1983) Shakespeare O Bangla
Natak. Calcutta: Sahitya Prakas.
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