Jamia to translate Tagore's literary works into Urdu

The Union ministry of culture has decided to translate works of poet and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. The project has been given to Jamia Millia Islamia.

The ministry has granted the two-year, Rs 96 lakh, project to the department of Urdu in the university.

The outcome will be 10 books comprising important writings of Tagore. They will also include works on Tagore by other writers and poets.

In a meeting of the research committee of Tagore Research and Translation Scheme, it was decided to translate Tagore’s selected poems, fiction, essays, articles, plays, important letters, interviews and travelogues.

A workshop was also organised in the university campus. Its inaugural session was presided over by eminent Urdu scholar Shamim Hanfi. “There was a time when Tagorism had become a literary jargon, and it has had a great impact on Urdu prose writers,” Prof Hanfi said.

Prof Khalid Mahmood, head of the university’s Urdu department, said, “It was a matter of great joy that the translation of ‘Gitanjali’ and ‘The Gardener’ and other poems was being taken up.”

He seemed hopeful that translations done under the scheme will become a part of history.

“It is a matter of pride that the ministry of culture has chosen Jamia for translating the works of the Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore,” said VC Najeeb Jung.