The ‘Introduction’ as Translation: A Critical Study of William Radice’s ‘Introduction’ to Gitanjali (2011)

Abstract

An introduction to a translation is a necessary part of modern (literary) translation practice. Without a proper introduction, translations cannot be understood clearly. Introduction is necessary when a text is rendered into another language, time and space and moreover to a different culture to make the target readers understand the context. But at the same time, introductions can also problematize a translation. It could violate, mutilate, and deviate from the original text before the actual translation is done i.e., the text. It could change the ‘discourse’ which is there in the original text. The proposed research paper questions the role and significance of an introduction to a translated text. The paper primarily looks at the long introduction by William Radice in his translation of Gitanjali (2011) in reference to two other introductions---one by W. B. Yeats in Song Offerings (1912) and Tagore’s own (rather a ‘foreword’) in the Bangla original Gitanjali in 1911 and compares and analyzes them to understand the role an introduction plays in a translation.