Lisova Pisnia in Bengali

First we would like to remind our readers that Bengali ranks as the world’s seventh language by the number of speakers. It is an official language in Bangladesh and in one of the 24 states of India. More than 230 million people speak it. In commemoration of two anniversaries (Lesia Ukrainka’s 140th birthday and the 130th anniversary of her fairy drama Lisova Pisnia (Forest Song)), a translation of this classic tale into Bengali was completed by Mridula Ghosh, who lives and works in Ukraine.

Ghosh, an Indian human rights activist, political scientist with a degree in international history, journalist, and board chair of the East European Development Institute, was born in Kolkata (Calcutta) to a family of intellectuals, her mother being a lawyer and her father, Chitta Ranjan Ghosh, a well-known doctor and public figure. It might look as if the girl’s career would be determined by those of her parents. Thus, she got her first degree at Presidency College at the University of Kolkata, the country’s oldest school of higher education and alma mater to many representatives of the Indian liberation movement (among the alumni are the first president of independent India, Rajendra Prasad, and the renowned Bengali film director Satyajit Ray).

Upon finishing her studies at Presidency College, Ghosh arrived in Ukraine, and in 1984 she became a student of the International Relations and International Law Department at the Taras Shevchenko Kyiv State University. As a student, she would often take part in art programs, as she is a master of Indian artistic dancing, has a degree in dancing, and is both a choreographer and a director.

Once after a concert, her Ukrainian friend Viktoria came up to tell how she admired her dance and, after a tempestuous expression of emotions, treated Ghosh to some chocolates. The candy was delicious, but the name, Forest Song, sounded strange. Then Viktoria told her about Lesia Ukrainka’s classical work of the same name, with the forest nymph Mavka, her sweetheart Lukash, and the wise Uncle Leo.

At that time, Ghosh wasn’t yet able to speak Ukrainian well (the classes for international students at the university were all in Russian), so Viktoria’s story remained obscure at some places. Yet neither then, nor later did Ghosh come across any other case when the title of a work of literature was perpetuated in such mundane thing as candy. She realized that Ukrainians were proud of this great writer.

Since then Ghosh has been interested in Lesia Ukrainka’s work. First, she bought a collection of her poems translated into English. She read, re-read, and recited Nadia (Hope), and in 1990-91 she translated it into Bengali.

An amateur of poetry since her early years, Ghosh discovered for herself the fine world of the Ukrainian literary art. That was when she met Viktor Batiuk, a professional translator of Rabindranath Tagore, a Bengali polymath, into Ukrainian. Her interest in poetry grew into something more serious and responsible — translations. Thus was born the idea to create an Anthology of Ukrainian Poetry in Bengali, which would comprise works by Taras Shevchenko, Lesia Ukrainka, Ivan Franko, Oleksandr Oles, Pavlo Tychyna, Volodymyr Sosiura, Borys Oliinyk, Ihor Rymaruk, Volodymyr Svidzynsky, Leonid Kyseliov, Sofia Maidanska, Liudmyla Skyrda and others. Aware of being an amateur translator, Ghosh showed her translations to experts in India, who praised her efforts.

Simultaneously with the Anthology, in 1992 Ghosh began to translate the fairy drama Lisova Pisnia. The work appealed to her because it depicts existence on the verge of reality, and has its counterpart in Indian folklore. Thus, in Ghosh’s translation Mavka the nymph appears as Maia, illusion or a temporary perception of a ghost. Nymphs (Pori or Jolopori) are ethereal creatures, Poterchata (spirits of unbaptized babies) appear as Garano-dhon: lost children are a lost treasure.

Ghosh translated by fits and starts, because some everyday scenes didn’t seem appealing enough; instead, the depiction of Mavka and Uncle Leo brought her great joy. There were times when life’s hardships stopped her from translating, because she believes that translation have to be heart-felt: for instance, she worked on it for five consecutive days, but then made a five-year-long pause.

The first pages, which Ghosh showed to Viktor Batiuk, were praised for her high artistic mastery. The manuscript always traveled with Ghosh to India, but she never took it to other countries. It was completed in August, 2010.

This translation is the result of the translator’s desire to not only understand the poetic text of the fairy drama deeper, but also to make Ukraine, and the fine specimens of its literature, known to people elsewhere. A versatile talent, Ghosh has an ambition: not only does she dream to publish her translation, but also to stage it, and film the performance. She is convinced that mythology provides vast grounds for imagination. Human imagination is always richer than just the visual range, therefore shooting a belles letters text as an action-film is a challenge for the writer. Also, Ghosh believes that this work is very useful for children: they can hear the creatures of the earth and voices from heaven, discover the values of life. Therefore, it’s necessary to find a scenic language and a performance for children.

Will Ghosh succeed in saying her own word on stage, since there already exists a ballet, a drama, and a puppet show of the same name? We will wait and see. Meanwhile, in India Ghosh is negotiating the publication of Lisova Pisnia in Bengali.