This English translation of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s dance-drama Shyama was prepared for the 2009 feature film version starring Kaberi Chatterjee, TS Vasunni, K Jatindra (Jiten) Singh and Basanta Mukherjee. Perhaps best described as a cross between opera and ballet, Shyama was Tagore’s last major work for the stage. It reflects his artistic and philosophical reaction to both the turbulence of pre-Independence India and Hitler’s persecution of Jews in Germany.
This English translation by Jayanta, Obhi & Kaberi Chatterjee closely matches the movements of the dancers and, hence, the grammatical construction of the original Bengali. No attempt has been made to make the English text rhyme in translation as this would have created inconsistencies between the English translation and the dancers’ movements.
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