India’s first ICS officer Satyendranath Tagore(1842-1923) was Rabindranath Tagore’s(1861-1941) source of inspiration in translation of Tukaram's poetry. Rabindranath translated 12 abhangs(poems) of Tukaram. Abhang generally consists of four couplets, of which the second couplet is dhrupad. The dhrupad contains the central theme of the poem.While singing the dhrupad is repeated in chorus after each couplet is sung. In these translations Rabindranath Tagore gives a brief biography of the poet Tukaram(1608-1650). The first three translations tell how Tukaram was initiated and inspired to poetry. The next seven are a dialogue with his wife , Jeejai. The last two are his farewell poems. Rabindranath first transliterated the Marathi poem and then did the translation in Bangla. The translations were in the manuscripts “Navratna” and “Malati Pothi” . .Given below are the links to the translations.Each link contains three translations and they are in chronological order.

 

  1. Tukaram translations 1-3       – Rabindrath Tagore.
  2. Tukaram translations 4- 6      – Rabindrath Tagore.
  3. Tukaram translations 7- 9      – Rabindrath Tagore.
  4. Tukaram translations 10-12   – Rabindrath Tagore.