বাঙালি-বাংলা করে করে সারাজীবন কাটিয়েছি | I have spent my whole life for Bengali and Bangla language

Abstract

France Bhattacharya, a prominent Frnech scholar, is a devotee to Bangla language and literature. Falling in love, at her age of 22, with Indian Sanskrit scholar Loknatha Bhattachaya, she came to India and got fascinated to learning Bangla by conversation with Bangla speaking people, watching Bangla movie and reading Bangla books. She in fact achieved scholarship in Bangla solely by dint of her own interest and efforts without any academic study, and she gradually became one of the most precious French translator of Bangla literature and taught Bangla language at French University! She started her translation works with Panther Panchali by Bibhutibhushan Bandyapadhyaya. Then, she translated Tarashankar's Rai Komola, Bankim's Ananadyamotha, Tagor's Zogazog, Char Adhyaya and so many other classics. She did posthumous works on Kasirama Das' Mohabharata, food culture in Chandimangala by Mukunda Das. She extracted precious elements from Dharmamangala, Nathasahitya, Monosamangala, Syed Sultan's Nabibangsa, and did intensive research on philosophic life of Sri Chaitannya and Sri Krisna as well as Iswarchandra Bidyasagara and Binodini Dasi. She translated a number of poems of Rabindranath Tagor and Jibananandya Das, literary works of Sttyajit Roy, and songs of Lalan Sain. Recently, she translated The Unfinished Memories (by BangabandhuSheikh Mujibur Rahman) in French.

Dr. Saymon Zakaria took her following intensive interview on 17th December 2019, at INALCO International Language University, Paris, France. Here, France Bhattacharya spoke straight about her love for Bengali people and Bangla language and her translation works from Bangla to French and English.