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 THE CURSE AT FAREWELL

It is not a translator’s business to point out the merits of the poem he has trans- lated. These his translation should show. But the reader unfamiliar with Indian thought may easily miss the most remark- able feature of The Curse at Farewell, its Janus-face toward both the old, vanished legendary world and the new, eager, ana- lytic world of to-day. Tagore’s descrip- tions of the forest-hermitage, of the Brahmin student's life, and of the sorrow and brooding loneliness of the Rains, are in the line of Indian tradition. This alone will ensure for the poem a passage to the heart of all India. For India has a common tradition; and, when Debjani waters her creepers and Kach runs to perform the task for her, every Indian will recognize the reminiscence of Sakuntala and Dus- yanta, as the poet intended he should. Similarly, he will not miss the reference to

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