Martin Kämpchen

Martin Kämpchen (born 9 December 1948) is an author, translator, journalist and social worker.

Early life He studied literature in Vienna and French in Paris. He earned his first doctorate in Vienna He worked for three years as a German teacher at the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture at Kolkata. He secured his second Ph D from Visva Bharati University. It was a dissertation on comparative religious study of Sri Ramakrishna, the 19th century Indian mystic-saint and Saint Francis of Assisi, the 11-12th century Italian saint. That brought him to Santiniketan in 1980. He took an instant liking to the place and has never since left it for a long period at a stretch.

At Santiniketan At Santiniketan, he has learnt Bengali, and has been translating Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Ramakrishna directly from Bengali to German, and Swami Vivekananda from English to German. He lives in Purba Palli but spends time at Ghosaldanga, a tribal village, 8 km from the town. There he has facilitated the establishment of a Santali medium school for the village children. He regularly cycled to Ghoshaldanga and back to Purba Palli. Kämpchen had contributed a piece Rabindranath Tagore and Germany: An Overview in the compilation Tagore – At Home in the World edited by Sanjukta Dasgupta and Chinmoy Guha. The introduction says that the article traced the journey of remembering Tagore in Germany through translations.

Kämpchen's translations started with what appeared to be easier poems, but that included some from Gitanjali, which were not easy at all. Santiniketan offered an advantage – there were people ready to assist and support. He studied the translations of Helene Meyer-Franck and Alokeranjan Dasgupta, both of whom had translated Tagore from Bengali to German. There was Ketaki Kushari Dyson, poet, novelist and translator (Bengali to English), whose comment that nobody who is not a poet is able to translate Rabindranath's poems competently had somewhat disturbed Kämpchen. The publication of Selected Poems of Rabindranath Tagore, translated from Bengali to English by William Radice inspired him. He later wrote Rabindranath Tagore in Germany – Four Responses to a Cultural Icon, which was more mature and complete. Amongst the many interesting persons Kämpchen met during the period was Alex Aronson, a teacher and author who had written Rabindranath through Western Eyes.

Books (in English) The Honey-seller and Other Stories. Translated by William Radice. Rupa & Co., Kolkata 1995.

Rabindranath Tagore in Germany. Four Responses To a Cultural Icon. Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla 1999.

My Broken Love. Günter Grass in India and Bangladesh. Compiled and Edited. Viking Penguin Books India, New Delhi 2001.

My dear Master. Correspondence of Helene Meyer-Franck and Heinrich Meyer-Benfey with Rabindranath Tagore. Edited with Prasanta Kumar Paul. Visva-Bharati Publishing Department, 1999; 2nd ed. 2010.

The Hidden Side of the Moon. Musings of a life between India and Europe. Niyogi Books, New Delhi 2014.

Rabindranath Tagore - One Hundred Years of Global Reception. Edited with Imre Bangha. Editorial Advisor Uma Das Gupta. Orient Blackswan, Hyderabad 2014; 2017.

Indo-German Exchanges in Education- Rabindranath Tagore Meets Paul and Edith Geheeb. Oxford University Press, New Delhi 2020.

Don't Let Me Down! Niyogi Books, New Delhi 2022. (A book for children)

Kites Fly Highest in the Mountains. Niyogi Books, New Delhi 2023. (A book for children)

We Live Here, You Know. Niyogi Books, New Delhi 2024. (A book for children)