Book review -"Farewell Song"

Shesher Kabita   by  Rabindranath Tagore

English translation “Farewell Song”    by   Radha Chakravarty.

                        Shesher Kabita was written in 1928 by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. The English translation Farewell Song is written by Radha Chakravarty. The main theme of this awesome blend of prose-poetry is romance.  “The novel also contains a self reference of significance in Bangla literature.  Amit remarks: "Poets must live for at most five years. ... Our severest complaint against Rabi Thakur is that like Wordsworth, he is illicitly staying alive." These remarks aroused much mirth among the reading public, but the novel is also a serious attempt at demonstrating his versatility, at age 67”. The story is set in two ironical places; near to nature the hill city of Shillong and overcrowded metropolitan  city of Culcutta.

                                                                              The novel opens with very descriptive introduction of Amit Rai the main protagonist of novel.  The way his speaking style is put forward , the way his dressing described, the way he figure out himself  all shows that he is very idealistic person. He mock on people who blindly follow crowd and he tries to do things which contrast others so that he could be noticed. The character of Amit gradually developed during course of novel. In starting of novel he was rather represented less attracting character who want attention by doing  odd things. He has created in himself a new poet called Nibaran Chakrabarti. After his encounter with Labanya he was attracted towards her.

                                                                                                 Philosophy of Amit was ahead of time which we can see in his comment “My relationship with Ketaki is indeed based on love, but it is like water in pitcher,to be collected daily,and used up everyday. While my love for Labanya remains a lake ,its waters not to be carried home but meant for my consciousness to swim in”. The statement which could be easily misunderstood at that time.

                                                  This novel contains strong content for feminism. All the female characters from Labanya, Jogmayadevi, Katy Mitter to Amit’s sisters Lissy, Sissy all were independent and in no matter less than their male counterparts. They were capable of doing all themselves and Labanya at one extend said she was not going to marry till her love for Amit flourished. In the novel we can see two poles for women group. On one side is Katty Mitter and her friends ,member of upper class society of Culcutta who copied blindly English high society and their pursuit of fashion. At other pole is Labanya and Yogamaya simple and wise full. Modern independent at the same time respecting Indian culture of love and humanity.  And between two is Amit trapped in but not belonging to either.

                                                                                                           In novel we see different types of love like that between  Labanya-Amit,  Amit-Katty, Labanya-Yogamaya, Yogamaya-Amit, Naren-Sissy..  But not only love we see different ways in which love is expressed. For example  Labanya’s  view on love was derived from books “the more I read the literature of love the more strongly I’m convinced that the tragedy of love occurs whenever people fail to accept their mutual independence, when they impose their will unjustly on other, when they imagine that we can change people ,re-create them to suit our own desire”.

                                                                                                 This novel is not only about romance and love but also contains analysis on Bangla literature and criticism. At the time when this novel was written Tagore was facing severe criticism specially from young writers . Amit represent that section while Labanya is used as mouthpiece of Tagore.“The literary debates in Farewell Song are not essential to the love plot. Amit and Labanya’s arguments about poetry have less to do with their own developing romance than with Tagore’s own fraught relationship with the young litterateurs of his time”.

                                                                                                Labanya and Amit  both remained torn subject through the novel. While Labanya was in dilemma whether to surrender her freedom for marriage or not. As Amit  alternates between Katy and Labanya because he has been fascinated about superficial brilliance of Katy and deep attraction for simplicity and dignity of Labanya. As he wants both he remain in dilemma throughout. 

                                                            Translation of poem  does not always bear fruitful result. As versatile poem written in Bangla lost their glory when translated in English. Although losing glory of its original language poems in novel succeeded in arousing emotions in our heart. The last poem of novel was versatile and hence justify coining the name of novel as “Farewell Song”.

                                                                                 The dialogues between Amit and Labanya about literature was bit less interesting which leaves readers alone. It felt like Tagore forcefully added those things out of context to justify his writing for so long years and to give answer to his critics. Else it is masterpiece. The end of the novel was inevitable seeing the nature of Amit and Labanya.

Reference

1 -  Wikipedia(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shesher_Kobita)

2  - Image from (betterworldbooks.com)