Kapurthala-born German writer Rajvinder Singh died at a hospital in Berlin after a brief illness, his family said on Saturday. He was 66. He is survived by his wife and a daughter.
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Rajvinder, who had been staying in Berlin since 1981, aimed at showcasing Indian literature in world literary circles. A three-time German poet laureate, he wrote his PhD thesis in semiotics at Berlin’s Technical University and was translating Punjabi novel Parsa by Jnanpith Award winning author Gurdial Singh in German. He admitted that it was not an easy task as both languages have different dictions. Besides Punjabi and German, he also wrote in English, Hindi and Urdu.
Rajvinder, a former national fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS) in Shimla, spent his initial years in Chandigarh and Jammu.
His poems are inscribed in stone, and displayed at four public places, which include the city park and three senior schools in Trier, one of the oldest German cities where Karl Marx was born and brought up.
“The Sikh social worldview teaches us to go beyond our personal ‘self-ness’ and care about the ‘other-ness’ as well,” the poet and dubbing actor had said in an interview.
{{/usCountry}}“The Sikh social worldview teaches us to go beyond our personal ‘self-ness’ and care about the ‘other-ness’ as well,” the poet and dubbing actor had said in an interview.
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