Joe Winter

He taught English in London comprehensive schools from 1967 to 1994, when he went to live in Calcutta, India (now Kolkata), returning to England in 2006.

While in India he taught part-time in a variety of schools, wrote articles of literary and general interest (in particular for The Statesman of Kolkata), and translated a number of volumes of the poetry and prose of Rabindranath Tagore and the poetry of Jibanananda Das from the Bengali original (see website Publications), having learnt Bengali during the period.

The Undefeated is a first-person Memoir of an old Indian Infantry Officer of the British Raj (so subtitled at the subject's request).

The last-mentioned poem begins: Goddess, Durga, lightning-eyed in the dark fortnight of the moon, mother, daughter, maiden, bride, come.

In addition to poetry of his own, Winter has published translations of Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali (as Song Offerings), Lipika and other works.

Gitanjali is Nobel Laureate Tagore's most famous volume: Winter's was the first lyrical poem-by-poem rendition of the entire Bengali original.

In addition versions of a few ballads of the mediaeval French poet Francois Villon and some poems from the Bengali of Rachana Kobira appear in the volumes of his original poetry, respectively Zimbabwe in August and Lalon Fakir at the Kolkata Book Fair.

Writers Workshop (Kolkata) in addition to all his original poetry publish a number of other works of his, including An Enquiry into Poetic Method (see website).