Abol Tabol

Dr. Sukanta Chaudhuri, Emeritus professor of English at Jadavpur University, recently wrote a most erudite yet entertaining article in memory of Sukumar Ray's immortal (and unique in Bengali) classic of nonsense poetry, Abol Tabol, in The Telegraph. Here is a link to the said article.

As Chaudhuri himself says, there aren't superlatives enough to describe Ray's magnum opus. Even Rabindranath himself could not quite match up to him in this one sphere at least. And Chaudhuri is absolutely best qualified to write an essay like this, because he made a magnificent translation of some of the most loved poems from Abol Tabol under the title of The Select Nonsense of Sukumar Ray, for which Satyajit Ray himself complimented him for having accomplished the apparently impossible. I consider myself privileged that I once collaborated with Sukantada on the Oxford series of translations of Tagore.

While Abol Tabol has enjoyed enormous popularity among the educated Bengali middle class for three continuous generations, it seems to me the dawn of the dark ages that most of today's children from the same sort of families can no longer recognise those poems, leave along being able to quote from them.

And do note and linger over the last paragraph of the essay. It bears thinking about.

Also, my fondness for Abol Tabol should be another proof that, in Russell's words, I should not be thought to be serious only when I am solemn. My grandfather was very fond of quoting from those poems, and as I grow old myself, I understand better why.