If you hear this, you will find your heads are getting muddled. Some of you will fathom fully, some will stay befuddled The Bengali language has never been quite such a living, breathing creature of whimsy as in Sukumar Ray s hands, and his creations-wild and wicked, dreamy and delirious-have thrilled children and adults alike. This selection offers you the best of his world-pun-riddled, fun-fiddled poetry from Abol Tabol and Khai-Khai, stories of schoolboy pranks (Pagla Dashu) and madcap explorers (Heshoram Hushiyarer Diary), and the unforgettable harumscarum classic of Haw-Jaw- Baw-Raw-Law, presented here for the first time in its entirety. All the stories and poems are accompanied by Sukumar Ray s inimitable illustrations. Sampurna Chattarji s vibrant translation captures the freewheeling play of sound and sense we associate with Ray s writings. With an introduction by Ruskin Bond, this book is sure to captivate Sukumar Ray s fans and win him a whole new generation of admirers.

Wordygurdyboom! The Nonsense World Of Sukumar Ray (Puffin Classics)

Children's Books

Ray, Sukumar

Literature & Fiction

India Puffin

Sukumar Roy is undoubtedly the finest writer of nonsense tales and verse in Bengali. This book presents his chief works--Rhymes without Reason and A Topsy-Turvy Tale--in English. The skillful translations convey the genial intimacy of Ray's creations and his original illustrations accompany the text throughout.

Select Nonsense of Sukumar Ray

Chaudhuri, Sukanta

History & Criticism

Oxford University Press

Only very rarely comes along a book that both delights the senses and stimulates the intellect at the same time. This first and only  complete translation of Abol Tabol in more than 100 years manages to do both with consummate ease.    With amazingly rhyme-accurate rendering that reads as if the poems had been penned in the English language to begin with, this translation preserves every single rollicking rhyme and the exact same cadences as in the originals. Each translated poem is one hundred percent line-accurate and evokes immediate nostalgia of the original in both rhyme and rhythm.  Abol Tabol is, in fact, cleverly disguised socio-political satire, written to mock the state of society and administration of early 20th century colonial India. The book provides groundbreaking analysis, linking the poems to specific historical events and uncovering the targeted satire hidden in many of the poems. It answers questions like: Who is Katth Buro? Which scandal in English parliament is the poem Gondho Bichar about? Which Bengal-school painting is mocked in Bhooturey Khela? Which three Indian statesmen were the Ahlaadi in real life?  With a total of more than 250 pages, this is a book in two parts: the first comprises the translated poems and more than 40 illustrations. The second contains investigative analysis and some never-before-published commentary on the symbolism and hidden meanings woven skillfully into the poems.  The analysis is beautifully clear, concise and logical, and cites more than 45 separate bibliographical references.    This book turns conventional wisdom about Sukumar Ray's Abol Tabol on its head, and irrevocably changes the understanding of this timeless work forever. A must-read for enthusiasts of humorous nonsense verse, as well as for academicians and students engaged in comparative literature and South Asian literature studies.

Rhymes of Whimsy - The Complete Abol Tabol: Translated into rhyme-accurate English, with investigative analysis of hidden satire.

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

Haton Cross Press

Close on the heels of the original Rhymes of Whimsy – The Complete Abol Tabol, follows, by popular demand, this dual-language edition with side by side Bengali originals and their English translations. Formatted to enable effortless at-a-glance comparison of each original line with its English translation, this edition offers twice the enjoyment, twice the fun, and is a fabulous learning tool for children. Abol Tabol is a collection of fifty-three children’s poems by late author Sukumar Ray, whose nonsense verse has been compared by scholars to the likes of Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll. For the first time in more than one hundred years since the publication of the earliest poems in 1915, comes an English translation of the complete collection. Preserving every single rollicking rhyme, and maintaining the exact same cadences as in the originals, Niladri Roy’s translation is a superbly line-accurate rendering of every poem in Abol Tabol, that amazingly manages to read as if the poems had originally been penned in the English language to begin with. Each translated poem evokes immediate nostalgia of the original in both rhyme and rhythm. 
A must-read for enthusiasts of humorous nonsense verse, as well as for academicians and students engaged in comparative literature, South Asian literature and translation studies. Praise for Rhymes of Whimsy from verified purchasers of the original all-English edition: 
<ul>
<li>“Wonderful translation. Preserves the original flavor of Abol Tabol.</li>
<li>“A+ job in translating the original rhymes to English while retaining the excitement, feelings and fun.”</li>
<li>“The translator has done a fantastic job by keeping the rhyme exactly the way as it is in the Bengali verse. A brilliant piece of work.”</li>
<li>“Maintains meter and flavor with ease, without compromising meaning.”</li>
<li>“The poems read very well and do not appear forced, as some translations do.”</li>
<li>“The essence, the fun, the magic, the rhymes - have all been carefully cultivated.”</li>
</ul>

Rhymes of Whimsy - Abol Tabol Dual-Language Edition

REVISED & ENLARGED SECOND EDITION.Two books in one: With a total of more than 250 pages, this is a book in two parts: the first comprises the translated poems and original illustrations by Sukumar Ray. The second contains investigative analysis and some never-before-published commentary on the symbolism and hidden meanings woven skillfully into the poems.Translations: With amazingly rhyme-accurate rendering that reads as if the poems had been penned in the English language to begin with, this translation preserves every single rollicking rhyme and the exact same cadences as in the originals. Each translated poem is one hundred percent line-accurate and evokes immediate nostalgia of the original in both rhyme and rhythm.Analyses: Abol Tabol is, in fact, cleverly disguised socio-political satire, written to mock the state of society and administration of early 20th century colonial India. The book provides groundbreaking analysis, linking the poems to specific historical events and uncovering the targeted satire hidden in many of the poems. It answers questions like: Who is 'Katth Buro'? Which scandal in English parliament is the poem 'Gondho Bichar' about? Which Bengal-school painting is mocked in 'Bhooturey Khela'? Which three Indian statesmen were the 'Ahlaadi' in real life? The analysis is beautifully clear, concise and logical, and cites more than 50 separate bibliographical references .Only very rarely comes along a book that both delights the senses and stimulates the intellect at the same time. This first and only complete translation of Abol Tabol in more than 100 years manages to do both with consummate ease. This book turns conventional wisdom about Sukumar Ray's Abol Tabol on its head, and irrevocably changes the understanding of this timeless work forever. A must-read for enthusiasts of humorous nonsense verse, as well as for academicians and students engaged in comparative literature and South Asian literature studies.This second edition includes minor revisions in translations, for improved correspondence to their originals and enhanced reader-experience in English. It also introduces substantially revised and entirely newly discovered information in the analyses. Original illustrations by Sukumar Ray have been incorporated by popular demand, replacing those in the first edition.

Rhymes of Whimsy - The Complete Abol Tabol

Humor & Satire

Abol tabol (literally "The Weird and the Absurd") is a collection of Bengali children's poems and rhymes composed by Sukumar Ray, first published on 19 September 1923 by U. Ray and Sons publishers. It consists of 46 named short rhymes (quatrains), all considered to be in the genre of literary nonsense.Bengali readers were exposed to a new nonsense fantasy world by the poems in Abol Tabol. This selection offers the best of Sukumar Ray's world of pun-riddled poetry.Although it was not understood at the time of its publication, many poems in Abol Tabol contain skilfully hidden satire on the state of society and administration of early 20th-century colonial India - mostly Bengal. Embedding implied hidden meanings of a subversive nature in nonsense rhymes for children, was Ray's clever way of subverting press censorship by the then British administration in India, which was paranoid about seditious and subversive literature.In analytical literature since 2017, the poems in Abol Tabol have been plotted on a timeline and compared with contemporaneous events, research having yielded plausible connections between historical events and the commentary and satire hidden in many of the poems.

Abol Tabol ( Bengali Edition )

Classics

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Pagla Dashu Crazy Dashu) is a fictional boy character created by Bengali writer Sukumar Ray.Pagla Dashu is a character appearing in several prominent works of Bengali literature from the early 20th century, most notably Pagla Dashu (1940). He is a school boy, famous for his crazy ideas and often inexplicable acts that carry subtle, comedic satire. Pagla Dashu stories are mainly for children, fun to read and creative.Pagla Dashu has become one of the very popular characters of Bengali literature, like many other characters created by Sukumar Ray, a popular Bengali author of nonsense poetry.

Pagla Dashu ( Bengali Edition )

HaJaBaRaLa or HJBRL: A Nonsense Story is a short children's novel by Sukumar Ray. Ha Ja Ba Ra La is considered one of the best nonsense stories of Bengali literature. To point out its artistic merit, people frequently compare it to Alice In Wonderland though two are completely different in their plot organisation, tone, mood, and cultural setting.

Hajabarala ( Bengali Edition )

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Books by Ray, Sukumar