Toru Dutt

“ The Dutts arrived in Europe at the close of 1869, and the girls went to school, for the first and last time, at a French pension. They did not remain there very many months; their father took them to Italy and England with him, and finally they attended for a short time, but with great zeal and application, the lectures for women at Cambridge. In November, [xiii] 1873, they went back again to Bengal, and the four remaining years of Toru's life were spent in the old garden-house at Calcutta, in a feverish dream of intellectual effort and imaginative production. ”

“ The life, the thoughts, and love experiences of a young French girl of good family, could only have been known to Toru Dutt by the mysterious intuition of imagination and sympathy, and though no one would pretend that the attempt to portray them has entirely succeeded, yet it is a proof of the real genius of the authoress that it should not have signally failed. The domestic conditions portrayed in the story are those of an English rather than of a French home, and there are not wanting, here and there, touches which betray the oriental cast of the writer's mind. ”

“ As a literary composition "Mlle. D'Arvers" deserves high commendation. It deals with the ungovernable passion of two brothers for one placid and beautiful girl, a passion which leads to fratricide and madness. That it is a very melancholy and tragical story is obvious from this brief sketch of its contents, but it is remarkable for coherence and self-restraint no less than for vigour of treatment. Toru Dutt never sinks to melodrama in the course of her extraordinary tale, and the wonder is that she is not more often fantastic and unreal. ”

“ Before the month of March was over, Toru had taken to her bed. Unable to write, she continued to read, strewing her sick-room with the latest European books, and entering with interest into the questions raised by the Société Asiatique of Paris in its printed Transactions. On the 30th of July she wrote her last letter to Mlle. Clarisse Bader, and a month later, on the 30th of August, 1877, at the age of twenty-one years, six months, and twenty-six days, she breathed her last in her father's house in Maniktollah Street, Calcutta. ”

“ The seemul, gorgeous as a bride,
With flowers that have the ruby's gleam.
In other passages, of course, the text reads like a translation from some stirring ballad, and we feel that it gives but a faint and discordant echo of the music welling in Toru's brain. For it must frankly be confessed that in the brief May-day of her existence she had not time to master our language as Blanco White did, or as Chamisso mastered German. To the end of her days, fluent and graceful as she was, she was not entirely conversant with English, especially with the colloquial turns of modern speech. ”

“ Croyez, mademoiselle, à la nouvelle assurance de mon amitié.
Toru Dutt. Chez son père, M. Govin C. Dutt,
Honorary Magistrate and Justice of the Peace, Calcutta.
P.S. J'ai retardé jusqu'à ici de faire remettre ma lettre à la poste; j'espérais recevoir le livre que M. Garcin de Tassy voulait bien m'envoyer. Mais je ne l'ai pas encore reçu, et la poste part demain. Je crois que peut-être j'aurai bientôt le bonheur de vous serrer la main. Nous espérons quitter l'Inde le prochain mois. Mon père veut absolument partir pour l'Europe. ”

“ But mellows what we write to the dull sweets of Rime.
That mellow sweetness was all that Toru lacked to perfect her as an English poet, and of no other Oriental who has ever lived can the same be said. When the history of the literature of our country comes to be written, there is sure to be a page in it dedicated to this fragile exotic blossom of song. ”

“ The scene is laid in France, and the characters are all French men and women. I shall publish it probably hereafter. Aru did not live to complete her part of the undertaking.
After her return to India, Toru commenced the study of Sanscrit along with me. We laboured hard at it, for not quite a year; her failing health compelled me to order her to give it up. She made a few translations as we read together. As two of these pieces have been published, I may as well reprint them here. The first appeared in the 'Calcutta Review,' the second in the 'Bengal Magazine.' ”

“ Much more important, however, than any of these was a complete romance, written in French, being the identical story for which her sister Aru had proposed to make the illustrations. In the meantime Toru was no sooner dead than she began to be famous. In May, 1878, there appeared a second edition of the "Sheaf gleaned in French Fields," with a touching sketch of her death, by her father; and in 1879 was published, under the editorial care of Mlle. Clarisse Bader, the romance of "Le Journal de Mlle. ”

“ In them Toru Dutt gives short critical notices of the various poets from whom she has translated; her criticism showing sometimes a naive simplicity that is very engaging, at others a keenness of insight and a purity of taste which are truly admirable. In addition to these criticisms we find notes on the occasions which called forth some of the poems, explanations regarding the allusions to persons and occurrences which they contain, and references to other poets and writers. ”

“ SÎTA, written by Toru Dutt, is a poem that refers to a woman who was abandoned by her husband in a forest. She was pregnant at the time and raised her two boys on her own. Within this poem, Dutt provides many images from the forest that Sita was abandoned in. ”

“ By prayer and penance Dhruva gained at last
The highest heavens, and there he shines a star!
Nightly men see him in the firmament.
Mademoiselle Clarisse Bader's charming work, entitled, 'La Femme dans L'Inde Antique,' which had been honoured with the approbation of the French Academy, having attracted Toru's attention in an advertisement, I got it out for her, and when she had read it, she admired it so much that she proposed to translate it. ”

“ It is significant that the task of wedding the rich vocabulary of England's poetry to purely oriental subjects has been accomplished by two Indian women. The feminine imagination will not endure expatriation, and clings tenaciously to the subtle memory of its origins. After half a century of barren literary exercise, Toru Dutt was the first to find in her own land an inspiration for her genius; and her achievement is being triumphantly repeated in the work of her accomplished successor.
The story of Bengali adventure in the realm of English poetry is not yet complete. ”

“ She had never been kissed by a man. Mr. Garcia had not kissed her once since she was four years old. How strange, how soul-thrilling that touch of his ups was. It sent all the dark blood rushing to her olive cheeks and forehead. She buried her face in her hands and wept. Was it for joy or for sorrow? She felt as if she had committed a great sin. It seemed all so strange to her! "How shall I tell father, for I must tell him! Oh how shall I tell him! How could he do it,—how could he? He shouldn’t have done it." She murmured, the tears in her eyes ”

“ His female cousins, Am and Toru Dutt, accomplished French and English scholars, both gave great poetic promise at the time of their early deaths from consumption in 1874 and 1877 respectively. Losing his father when he was thirteen, Romesh came under the guardianship of his uncle, Sasi Chunder Dutt, registrar of the Bengali secretariat, and a voluminous writer on Indian life and history. Educated at Hare's school and at the presidency college, Calcutta, Romesh took second place in the first examination in arts of the university in 1866. ”

“ Toru Dutt was the youngest of the three children of a high-caste Hindu couple in Bengal. Her father, who survives them all, the Baboo Govin Chunder Dutt, is himself distinguished among his countrymen for the width of his views and the vigour of his intelligence. His only son, Abju, died in 1865, at the age of fourteen, and left his two younger sisters to console their parents. Aru, the elder daughter, born in 1854, was eighteen [xi] months senior to Toru, the subject of this memoir, who was born in Calcutta on the 4th of March, 1856. ”

“ Drawing his wood-knife, and putting the Tortoise down by the water, he hastened to secure the Deer, and Golden-skin, in the meantime, gnawed asunder the string that held Slow-toes, who instantly dropped into the pool. The Deer, of course, when the hunter got near, sprang up and made off, and when he returned to the tree the Tortoise was gone also. "I deserve this," thought he—
'Whoso for greater quits his gain,
Shall have his labor for his pain;
The things unwon unwon remain,
And what was won is lost again.'
And so lamenting, he went to his village. ”

“ The lotus flowers exhaled a smell
Faint, over all the solitude,
A heron as a sentinel
Stood by the bank. They called—in vain,
No answer came from hill or fell,
The landscape lay in slumber's chain,
E'en Echo slept within her cell.
Broad sunshine, yet a hush profound!
They turned with saddened hearts to go;
Then from afar there came a sound
Of silver bells;—the priest said low,
"O Mother, Mother, deign to hear,
The worship-hour has rung; we wait
In meek humility and fear.
Must we return home desolate? ”

“ Lightens the world. Bow, nations, bow!
Let her again lead on the way.
After her return to Calcutta in November 1873, Toru Dutt continued her French studies, and also applied herself to the study of Sanskrit, under the direction of her father, who also cultivated and encouraged her talent for writing in general and for poetry in particular, and it was to his instructions that she always ascribed her facility in the latter branch of literature. ”

“ Women seldom fail to rise to the occasion when opportunity is vouchsafed them. The late Maharani Surnomoyi of Cossimbazar managed her enormous estates with acumen; and her charities were as lavish as Lady Burdett-Coutts’s. Toru Dutt, who died in girlhood, wrote French and English verses full of haunting sweetness. It is a little premature for extremists to prate of autonomy while their women are prisoners or drudges. ”

“ It should, however, be remembered that fifteen years ago it was an exceedingly rare thing for an Indian lady to wish to mix in English society, or to possess the education that would fit her for doing so; and so it came to pass, not unnaturally, that the existence of two well-bred, well-read girls like Toru Dutt and her sister, was not even suspected by those who, if they had known it, would have been only too well pleased to have made friends with them. ”

“ In every case, in a greater or less degree, the work of education and enlightenment has been begun in the previous generation, and Ramabai, Toru Dutt, and Cornelia Sorabji have all borne witness to the debt they owe to their mothers. ”

“ We feel, as in the case of Toru Dutt, what force is in these Bengali ladies. Feel, too, as we do not feel with Toru Dutt, that they are exceedingly stirred against things close to their daily lives. Effective criticism of a society comes best from those who are members of it. Indian society has been portrayed in the writings of Bankim Chatterjee, of Rabindranath Tagore, of Sarat Chatterjee, and many others. But it is an immense gain to any nation that its society should be seen through the eyes of its own intellectual countrywomen ”

“ She shrank away so timidly at her father’s words, that Lord Moore, only smiled gravely to encourage her. He had her hand in his and he looked at the white thin fingers sadly, as they lay against his own strong ones. "You must be quick and get well, Bianca," said her father, "look Henry is regarding with sorrow your thin little hands; you must pick up flesh, and get strong again." "Yes,father." Then after a pause. "Do you like my lord, now father?" She asked anxiously, "Not a bit, Bianca;" said Garcia, as he placed his hand on Lord Moore's shoulder ”

“ Almost simultaneously this volume fell into the hands of Toru, and she was moved to translate it into English, for the use of Hindoos less instructed than herself. In January, 1877, she accordingly wrote to Mlle. Bader requesting her authorization, and received a prompt and kind reply. On the 18th of March Toru wrote again to this, her solitary correspondent in the world of European literature, and her letter, which has been preserved, shows that she had already descended into the valley of the shadow of death:—
"Ma constitution n'est pas forte ”

“ Gems whose rich lustre would make artists ecstatic,
And ravish king's hearts, and convert with their glory
A hundred strange ruins, dark, crumbled and hoary,
To Aladdin's palaces of the famed Arab story.
Then looked at minutely each gem in its station.
What hues! Oh, what hues! blue, orange, carnation,
Amethyst, onyx, agate, and the ruby that blushes,
And pearl and carbuncle that send light out in gushes,
All by the waves patient polished for ages and ages,
While carried hither and thither by the wind as it rages.
Ah! What flashes of lightning! What shades soft and tender! ”

“ Asked Garcia angrily. "It's I Martha; there's a letter from the Hall, sir." He rose and went to the door. "The servants mustn't see you thus distressed; what will they think" muttered he to his daughter. He opened the door, took in the letter and barred the door. "I suppose it is an offer of marriage" said he, tearing open the envelope. He read it, then throw it to Bianca. "Read that; what am I to do! The world is full of troubles! The sooner one is out of it, the better." Bianca wiped her eyes and took the letter. A feeling of a momentary pleasure sent the blood tingling to her cheeks ”