Kolkata, Sep 12 (PTI) India-born writer of diasporic literature, Ketaki Kushari Dyson, who played a significant role in taking Rabindranath Tagore’s works to a wider audience through English translations and research, has died in England, a close family friend here said. She was 86.
Suffering from age-related ailments for a long time, she breathed her last at a hospital in an Oxford suburb around 9 pm on Friday, said Sumana Das Sur, a close family friend and a researcher at the Rabindra Bharati University here.
Dyson was taken to hospital on August 31, Sur told PTI.
She is survived by husband Robert Dyson and sons Virgil Pujari Dyson and Igor Niladri Dyson.
Born on June 26, 1940, in undivided Bengal’s Kushtia, which is now part of modern-day Bangladesh, Ketaki Kushari Dyson graduated in English Literature from Presidency College in 1958 with record marks. She completed her studies at Oxford University, earning a PhD in 1975.
Her scholarly works included extensive research on Nobel laureate Tagore, particularly his paintings. She has also made a significant contribution to translating Tagore’s works into English.
While studying at Oxford University, she met her future husband Robert Dyson, a Yorkshire-born student of physics. She eventually became a British citizen but remained deeply attached to the Bengali language and literature throughout her life.
Her body of work includes several poems, plays and novels such as “Balkal”, “Nari, Nagari” and “Jal Phunre Agun”.
The most significant of her scholarly works was “Rabindranath O Victoria Ocampo-r Sandhane”, which explored Tagore’s association with Argentine writer Victoria Ocampo.
Sur said that Dyson could have chosen to write entirely in English given her academic achievements, but remained committed to Bengali. “She had promised poet and novelist Buddhadeb Bose that she would never stop writing in Bengali, and she kept that promise throughout her life,” Sur said.
Acclaimed Bengali poet Subodh Sarkar said, “Ketaki Kushari Dyson was an important Bengali language poet whose works in the 1960s created ripples. Her books were relished by both uninitiated readers and researchers alike.” She was conferred the prestigious Ananda Purashkar in 1986 as well as several other awards during her lifetime. PTI SUS NSD RBT
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