Rewriting the Original a study of Clinton B Seelys Translations of Jibanananda Dass Pomes

Abstract

Clinton Booth Seely (1941--), who emerged as a successful Jibanananda translator with his A newlinePoet Apart: A Literary Biography of the Bengali Poet Jibanananda Das(1899-1954) newlinepublished in 1990, had majored in Biology from Stanford University before he joined, in newline1963, the US Peace Corps and travelled to Bangladesh (East Pakistan) as a Corps volunteer. newlineFor two years, he taught biology at the Barisal Zilla School. His attachment with Bangladesh newlinebegan from here. His interest in Bengali made him learn the language at a local missionary newlineschool. Arguably, he was fascinated by the land he was sojourning and the local language he newlinewas learning. After his return to the US, he joined the University of Chicagoand#8223;s Department of newlineSouth Asian Languages and Civilizations, and gained his masterand#8223;s degree in 1968 under the newlineguidance of Edward C. Dimock, Jr, a scholar of Bengali literature. He met Jyotirmoy Datta, a newlineBengali poet and journalist in a writerand#8223;s workshop in Iowa. He encouraged Seely to take up newlineJibanananda Das as the subject of his doctoral research perhaps because he thought that newlineSeelyand#8223;s more than casual acquaintance with Bangladesh would be helpful for such a work. newlineConsequently, in 1969, Seely started his investigations regarding Jibanananda Dasand#8223;s life and newlineeducation. His investigations made him move to the libraries of Calcutta to the very place newlinewhere the poet was run over by a tram in 1954. newline In 1971, he returned to Chicago and started teaching Bengali there. He completed newlinehis Ph.D in 1976. The title of the doctoral dissertation was: Doe in Heat: A Critical newlineBiography of the Bengali Poet Jibanananda Das (1899-1954). At the same time, he had also newlinecompleted his first work of translation from Bengali