British poet, writer and translator (1951–2024)
William Radice (1951 – 10 November 2024) was a British poet, writer and translator. His research area was in Bengali language and literature, and he was the senior lecturer in Bengali in the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. He translated several Bengali works, and works by Rabindranath Tagore and Michael Madhusudan Dutt.
Radice adapted the text "Debotar Grash" by Rabindranath Tagore as an opera libretto, which was set to music by Param Vir as Snatched by the Gods. He wrote the libretto for a children's opera "Chincha-Chancha Cooroo" or "The Weaver's Wedding" with music by Bernard Hughes.
He published nine volumes of poetry ranging from "Eight Sections" (1974), "Strivings" (1980), "Louring Skies" (1985) and "Gifts" (2002) to his latest two books "This Theatre Royal" (2004) and "Green, Red, Gold, a novel in 101 sonnets" (2005) which were hailed by A. N. Wilson in "The Daily Telegraph" as stunning. He has also fore-worded a collection of translated Tagore poems, Soaring High, written by Mira Rani Devi.
In 2002, he published the voluminous (784 pages) "Myths and Legends of India", a collection of 112 of his own retellings with selections from P. Lal's ongoing transcreation of the "Mahabharata". Along with the major Hindu myths, he included legends and folk tales from Muslim, Buddhist, Jain, Syrian Christian and tribal sources.
His mother was the editor and translator Betty Radice. William Radice died from cancer in England, on 10 November 2024, at the age of 73.
Major publications.
William Radice's main publications include:
References.
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