Introduction

This is a collection of Rabindranath Tagore's short stories, edited and translated by Mohammad A. Quayum. Quayum's translation of Tagore's stories is exceptional in its retention of the subtleties of Bengali expression. It not only transfers the colloquialism commonly used in a daily Bengali household but brings alive the minutiae of the rural milieu. The other outstanding feature is Quayum's success with translating what is more complex - the intricacies of human relationships. Generally, the stories read almost as though they had been written originally in English. At no moment does the reader get loss in the translation, either linguistically, culturally or psychologically, and this surely is the ultimate test of a translator.