‘Lucky to learn and study Bengali’: William Radice (1951-2024) on why and how he translated Tagore
Radice’s translations include Tagore’s ‘Gitanjali’ and ‘The Home and the World’ among others. He died on November 11, 2024.
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William Radice (1951-2024) was a British poet, writer and translator. He was also the senior lecturer in Bengali at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. His translation includes several iconic Bengali works including those by Rabindranath Tagore and Michael Madhusudan Dutt. His translated works include Tagore’s Gitanjali and The Home and the World and Dutt’s The Poem of the Killing of Meghnad.
Radice also adapted the text Debotar Grash by Rabindranath Tagore as an opera libretto. He published nine volumes of poetry ranging from Eight Sections (1974), Strivings (1980), Louring Skies (1985) and Gifts (2002) to his latest two books This Theatre Royal (2004) and Green, Red, Gold, A Novel in 101 sonnets (2005).
In 2002, he published the voluminous 784-page Myths and Legends of India, a collection of 112 of his own retellings with selections from P Lal’s transcreation of the Mahabharata. Along with the major Hindu myths, he included legends and folk tales from Muslim, Buddhist, Jain, Syrian Christian and tribal sources.
William Radice died in England on 11 November 2024, at the age of 73.
The following is a lecture delivered by William Radice at Rabindra Bhavan, Ahmedabad, 24 February 2003 in memory of Sujata Chaudhuri (1913-2003) and the victims of the Gujarat riots.
About 500 people attended the function at which I gave this lecture. It was held on the...
