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Debabrata Chakrabarti (b. 28 September 1950 [11 Asvin, 1357 BS]) is a translator, essayist, poet, teacher of German, Indologist and Tagore scholar.

Early life, education and influences

Chakrabarti was born in his maternal uncle’s house in the village of Gopalpur in the Goalanda subdivision (now in Baliakandi Upazilla) of Faridpur District in East Pakistan (now called Bangladesh) as the son of Purnendubikas (1925-2010) and Sabita Devi (1932-2018). At the time of his birth, his father had been working in a central government office in Kolkata under the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance since 1946.

Chakrabarti’s writing skills became evident when he was only a boy, and he astonished his family by composing a perfectly rhymed Bengali poem at the age of eight. He was educated at Akshay Shikshayatan (popularly called as Ripon School) in Howrah where his parents lived at that time, and his childhood was spent in the same city in a very liberal atmosphere among teachers and elders whom he recalls as highly educated and admirable persons who continue to influence him today. They included, to name but a few, Headmaster Amulyadhan Ghosh, Bimal Chattopadhyay, Bijaylal Chattopadhyay, Shyamalkumar Chakraborty, Rakhaldas Naha, Brajen Samaddar, Nikhil Bhattacharya among others. He was deeply impressed by their teaching techniques.

The partition of Bengal was always in his mind since relatives from East Pakistan visited his parental home to take temporary shelter during the fifties. From childhood he was a voracious reader of books which he borrowed from the nearby Howrah State Library. He was particularly influenced by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhya’s Pather Panchali (Song of the Road), one of the first books he ever read.

In 1963 his schooling in Howrah was interrupted when his father built a house in a place called Konnagar on the Howrah-Bandel railway line. He describes having felt like a fish out of water there. Nevertheless he passed Higher Secondary from a school named Nabagram Vidyapith in 1966, spending about two and half years in the institution. He was very impressed with the Assistant Head Master Shibendrasundar Bhattacharya’s teaching at the school.

He entered Serampore College in 1966 with honours in Sanskrit but later shifted to Sanskrit College. In Serampore College, however, he was influenced by Professor Rabindranath Chakraborty of the English Department, who helped him develop his translation skills through translating English texts into Bengali. In Sanskrit College he studied with excellent teachers such as Bhabani Charan Mukhopadhyay, Kalidas Bhattacharya, Kalicharan Sastry, Dr. Muniswar Jha, Harihar Mishra, Jaydeb Gangopadhyay. In fact, all of his teachers were truly erudite in one way or another, and were an inspiration to their students. At Calcutta University he studied with Krishnagopal Goswami, Bishnupada Bhattacharya, Phanibhushan Bhattacharya, Sukhamay Mukhopadhyay, Pitambar Jha, M. Vyakaranacharya and others who were not only outstanding scholars and teachers, but also splendid individuals. In later life he became very close to Prof. Dilipkumar Biswas (1920-2003), Professor of Ancient Indian History at the Sanskrit College and an eminent personality in the field, and considers him to have been his mentor in later life.

Professional life

Chakrabarti found employment at the Bank in 1974, but after twenty-two years of service felt it was time to leave an environment ill-suited to his temperament and interests. In the meantime he had studied German at the Goethe Institute (Max Müller Bhavan) in Kolkata for about five years, graduated from Calcutta University in German, and done a precursory course of Masters in German for one year at the same university. He took voluntary retirement at the age of forty-six and henceforth devoted himself entirely to his studies, writing books, translating and teaching German at Calcutta University, where he began teaching in 1992. At this time he joined a German Language Training (2 year course, 6 weeks participation) at the Goethe Institute (Max Müller Bhavan) in Puna and took advanced training at the Goethe Institute in Munich. His voluntary retirement proved a financial struggle, but he never regretted following his true inclinations to pursue knowledge and literature. He later earned a PhD in Sanskrit from Jadavpur University.

He taught German at Calcutta University from 1992 to 2018.

He has translated works by Günter Grass (Zunge Zeigen, [Jibh Kāto Lajjāy, 1990] and Die Blechtrommel [Tin Drām, 2015]), Thomas Mann (Der Tod in Venedig [Venise Mrityu, 1998]), Moriz Winternitz (Gandhi Essays, [Gāndhī Parikramā, 1994]), Lion Feuchtwanger (Kalkutta, 4. Mai [Kolkātā Chauthā Me, 1994]), Rainer Maria Rilke (Duineser Elegien [Duino Elijiguli, 2015]) from German into Bengali. He translated Moriz Winternitz’s book on Tagore’s Religion and Weltanschauung from German into both Bengali and English, and both are critical editions (Bengali title: Biśvahriday Pārābāre [in Press] and English: Rabindranath Tagore: The Poet’s Religion and World Vision, 2011). He has published innumerable translations and essays in a variety of journals and magazines.

Chakrabarti’s own research on Tagore focused on the poet’s proximity to the intellectuals of Germany, and was published in 2014 under the title Jārmānir Prājñatīrthe Rabindranāth (Tagore in the intellectual pilgrimage of Germany). He also authored Scholar as Seer: Moriz Winternitz and East-West Dialogue (now in press), a pioneering work written in English on the German-speaking Jewish Professor of Indology at the Charles University in Prague. His bilingual book of poems Bau dir eine Brücke/ Setubandho Gore Tolo (Build a bridge of your own) (German-Bengali, Bengali-German) was published jointly with the Austrian poet Helmuth A. Niederle in 2011. He recently published a book of poems Naiśa Ālāper Sūchikarma/Tapestry of Nocturnal Conversations (with his own English translation from Bengali being edited by Simon Knight) jointly with Shankarnath Chakraborty in a bilingual edition (Bengali-English, 2018). His German essays and Bengali poems in German translation have been included in numerous prestigious publications in Germany and Austria.

Chakrabarti has a specialization in German Language & Literature, Comparative Literature, Indology, Translation Studies and Tagore Studies. He is not only a German teacher and literary translator, but also a travel consultant, and he coaches aspirants heading to Germany and German-speaking Countries for IT or other important professional assignments.

As a Sanskritist, he also served as a “Visiting Resource Person” for students in the Master of Arts programme at the Department of Bengali Literature for the full session of 1999-2000, and taught Sanskrit Poetics/Aesthetics in the final year of the Master of Arts.

He was a Visiting Lecturer at Charles University in Prague and taught there in the Department of Indology five times. He has also lectured on a number of occasions at the South Asian Institute of Indology & Tibetology at Vienna University. He has lectured widely in India and Europe.

He frequently visits Europe to lecture at universities or collaborate on literary projects which promote understanding between Eastern and Western traditions.

For some time now he has been teaching both German and English privately in order to pass on his knowledge to the younger generation.

Awards and honours

Chakrabarti was offered the prestigious post of Translator-in-Residence at the internationally respected Europäisches Übersetzer-Kollegium in Straelen, Germany in 2005, and was a fellow of the same institution several times. He was also a fellow of the Austrian Society for Literature, (Österreichische Gesellschaft für Literatur) Vienna several times, and of the Translators’ House at Looren, Switzerland (Übersetzerhaus Looren) in 2009.

Works (selected) as author:


 * 1) Jārmānir Prājñatīrthe Rabindranāth, Tagore in     the intellectual pilgrimage of Germany, 2014, M. C. Sarkar & Sons, Kolkata, 2013 ISBN:     978-81-7157-127-7
 * 2) Bau dir eine     Brücke/Setubandho Gore Tolo, A Book of Poems in bilingual edition     (German-Bengali, Bengali-German) jointly with Dr. Helmuth A. Niederle,     Winternitz Society for Literature & Culture, Kolkata, 2011 ISBN 978-81-8465-767-8
 * 3) Naiśa Ālāper     Sūcikarma – A Tapestry of Nocturnal Conversations - A Book of     Poems in bilingual edition (Bengali-English, English-Bengali) jointly with     the Bengali Poet Shankarnath Chakraborty, MC Sarkar & Sons, 2018 ISBN:     978-81-936303-0-3
 * 4) Rabindranath     Tagore und Moriz Winternitz, an essay written in German, incorporated in the     book: Universalgenie Rabindranath Tagore: Eine Annäherung an die     bengalische Dichtung, Philosophie und Kultur, edited by Hamidul Khan,     Draupadi Verlag, Heidelberg, 2012 ISBN: 978-3-937603-64-3
 * 5) Perfektion oder Schönheit ist beschrānkt     auf Zeit und Raum, included in Schriftenreihe "Littera     Borealis". Littera Borealis 14 - Günter Grass, published by     Literaturhaus Schleswig-Holstein and Sparkassenstiftung Schleswig-Holstein     2014, p. 42.

Books translated from German into Bengali and edited:


 * 1) Grass, Günter,     Die Blechtrommel, as “Tin Drām”, Rupali, Kolkata, 2015  ISBN: 978-81669-59-4
 * 2) Grass, Günter,     Zunge Zeigen, as “Jibh Kāto Lajjāy”, M.C.Sarkar & Sons, Kolkata, 1990
 * 3) Feuchtwanger,     Lion (along with Brecht B.), Kalkutta, 4. Mai,  as “Kolkata Chauthā Me” (Sponsored by     the Consulate of the Federal Republic of Germany in Kolkata), Avant Garde,     Kolkata, 1994
 * 4) Winternitz,     Moriz, A Collection of Five Essays on Mahatma Gandhi, as “Gāndhi     Parikramā”, M.C.Sarkar & Sons, Kolkata, 1994
 * 5) Mann, Thomas,     Der Tod in Venedig, as “Venise Mrityu” M.C.Sarkar & Sons, Kolkata,     1998 (Sponsored by Inter Nationes, Bonn)
 * 6) Winternitz     Moriz, Rabindranath Tagore: Religion und Weltanschauung des Dichters, as     “Rabindranath Thakur: Kabir Dharma O Biswabiksha”, Desh, Special Literary     Number, 1987 (Desh Sahitya Samkhya, 1394)
 * 7) Rainer Maria     Rilke, Duino Elijiguli, Winternitz Books, Kolkata, 2015

ISBN 13-978-81-932184-0-2


 * 1) Bisvahriday     Pārābāre - Collection of Essays on Rabindranath Tagore by Moriz Winternitz     in Bengali Translation (in Press)

Books and essays translated from German into English:


 * 1) Winternitz     Moriz, Rabindranath Tagore: The Poet’s Religion and World Vision     (Original: Rabindranath Tagore: Religion und Weltanschauung des Dichters)     (with an introduction, annotations and appendices), Winternitz  Society for Literature & Culture,     Kolkata 2011 ISBN     978-81-8465-628-2
 * 2) Excerpts from     Ulrich Weisstein: “Als wär’s ein Stück      von Brecht” In Weimerer Beiträge XVI (1970), pp. 190-211, translated     and published in the book: Perspectives on Lion Feuchtwanger and Bertolt     Brecht Calcutta, 4th May, Avantgarde, Kolkata April 1994
 * 3) Philosophical     Problems of the Hymn to Time (Philosophische Probleme der Hymnen an die     Zeit) by Dr. Dr. Klaus Mylius, published in the book Atharvana, edited by     Dr. Abhijit Ghosh, Sanskrit Book Depot, Kolkata, 2002

Translations from German into Bengali (completed, but not yet published):


 * 1) Anthology of     Austrian poetry in Bengali translation (translator and editor)
 * 2) Karin Engell,     “Als Onça starb”, in Bengali as “Onsha jakhon mara gelo”     Early life, education and influences