When Rabindranath and Borges crossed paths

In Manuscripts of Rabindranath Tagore, Octavio Paz enlightens us thus, "Although Rabindranath has influenced some of our Hispanic-American poets, none of our poets have had any kind of influence on him. He was not well versed in Spanish and in his writings there is no hint of his acquaintance with our writers or our tradition".
Latin America was rather unknown to Rabindranath all his life. Although for two complete months, November 1924 to January 1925, Rabindranath was a guest of Victoria Ocampo of Argentina, the truth is that even in his later life, Tagore developed no deeper interest about Spanish art and literature or the Hispanic tradition. In a letter after this visit to Argentina, Rabindranath wrote, "I used to feel very sad thinking why I had not learned the Spanish language ever in my life." After writing this letter Rabindranath lived for another sixteen years or so. But there is no indication that he had any kind of attraction for this language or its literature. It might have been because of his advancing age and tremendous preoccupations. Whatever references he made to Latin tradition or to Argentina are found in those letters and in a particular poem. Maybe it is the only poem where the word 'Hispani' can be located. He wrote, "This local Hispani gives no clue" (Ektuoto deyna avash ei deshi Ispani).
During Rabindranath's lifetime, the works of such great Spanish writers as Miguel de Cervantes, Quevedo, Gongora and Miguel de Unamuno were translated into English. But none of them could ever enter the world of Rabindranath's interest. On the other hand, Rabindranath became the centre of curiosity, enthusiasm, literary practices and inspiration for some of the influential Spanish writers. The list is quite rich: Juan Ramon Jimenez of Spain; Pablo Neruda, Gabriela Mistral, Vicente Huidorbo, Bolodia Teitelboim of Chile; Jose Vasconselos, also education minister, and Octavio Paz of Mexico; Romulo Gallego of Venezuela, Cecilia de Meireles of Brazil and Victoria Ocampo of Argentina. Of course there are many others beyond this very august list. But the great Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, who was extremely critical and sensitive on the question of artistic perfection and subtlety, was also among them. This we came to learn at a much later period.
It is well-known that one-third of Jimenez's writings are translations of Rabindranath's writings in Spanish. One of the poems in Neruda's first book of verses (Twenty Love Songs and One Song of Despair) is an exact translation of Tagore's famous song, 'You are the evening clouds' (Tumi Shondhar Meghomala). And everyone knows about the much-read writing of Ocampo on Rabindranath, the Bangla translation of which appeared much earlier in Shankho Ghosh's translation, 'Ocampo's Rabindranath'. But what was not known to us is that even Borges focused his attention on Rabindranath for some time or the other over his entire lifetime. But this attention was not as marked by deep infatuation as was the case with Borges' friend and literary companion Victoria Ocampo. The reason for such lack of passion is definitely related to the differences in their literary tastes.
At the time of its very first appearance, Sur, the literary magazine, played a dominant role in disseminating the intellectualism and thoughts of Latin America. Victoria Ocampo included Borges as a co-editor. From Borges' own telling of the story, we come to know that from the very beginning Ocampo took the profound thoughtfulness and creative power in the younger Borges quite seriously. Although Borges and Ocampo had deep respect for each other, a closer relationship never evolved between the two owing to their differences in literary tastes. Ocampo admired Baudelaire more than she did Victor Hugo. Borges had just the opposite preference. The importance that Ocampo gave Ortega y Gasset of the West and Rabindranath of the East, was something Borges could never share with her.
Rabindranath found aesthetic pleasure and certainty by using adjectives and similes in a wider spectrum, very much like the 'bistar' and 'aalap' that we find in classical Indian music. In contrast, Borges would discover the mysterious trends of the human soul from the labyrinth of appropriateness, duality, quickness and economy. Still, though this contrast existed, Borges, at various phases of his life, paid attention to Rabindranath and his works. Readers will be surprised to learn that there were meetings and conversations between the two. We are certain that Borges was familiar with Rabindranath's writings even before he met the poet at Ocampo's home in Buenos Aires.
In 1921 Borges wrote an article, titled 'La Metafora', in the 35th issue of Cosmopolitan, a literary magazine published from Madrid. In the article he mentioned Rabindranath. Three years later, Rabindranath arrived in Argentina. Borges was a voracious reader. He began reading Rabindranath while he was in Spain, the land where he also started writing his own pieces.
If we consider the links and sources of language and personality, two names in Spanish literature will surface in our minds --- Juan Ramon Jimenez and Rafael Cansinos Assens. Borges used to call the latter his literary guru. Both these great writers translated Rabindranath's writings in Spanish. Between the two, of course, Jimenez is more renowned as a translator of Rabindranath's works. Although Rafael Cansinos-Assens did not translate much of Rabindranath's writings, he will be no less remembered by Spanish readers for his translation of Tagore's work, The Religion of Man. Borges was closely related to both these writers. Maybe he had heard of Rabindranath Tagore from either or both of them, or maybe he was familiar with the English translation of Rabindranath's works beforehand, or perhaps he had come across the French translations of Rabindranath's work by Andre Gide since Borges had learnt French in school in Geneva.
The first reference to Tagore by Borges is found in the article 'La Metafora'.
When Borges wrote this article he was involved with the literary movement in Spain called 'Ultra'. The same year he returned to Buenos Aires and established a literary movement by the same name; and in Nosotros magazine (1921) edited by Alfredo Bianchi, he proclaimed the literary philosophy and thoughts of 'Ultraism'. One of the postulates of this theory is: 'Lyric should be condensed to its original element metaphor'. In those turbulent days of the literary movement, the young Borges was probably somewhat inspired by Rabindranath's book of verse, Crescent Moon, published in November 1913 by Macmillan. Did the experience of reading this book indirectly influence the young Borges to write 'La Metafora' and constructthe literary theory of 'Ultraism'? It is true that through a coinage of the words 'our Rabindranath and Lugones' Borges drew Rabindranath closer to his heart. The feeling was to continue three years later when Rabindranath arrived in Buenos Aires in November 1924. At the time of Tagore's arrival, Borges, with great enthusiasm, announced the event under a news caption, 'Arrival of Rabindranath', in the November issue of 'Proa'. This literary magazine had been launched for the second time by Ricardo Gurilades, a writer and Borges' friend, just two months earlier, in August 1924).

Translated from Bangla : Kamrul Hassan
(The second and final installment of this article will appear next week).