Rabindranadha Tagor, Gitanjali Essay

(Gitanjoli) is a accrual of 103 English poems, largely translations, by the Bengali poet Rabindranadha Tagore This volume became very famous in the West, and was widely translated. Gitanjali (Gitanjoli) is similarly the title of an earlier Bengali volume (1910) of mostly devotional songs. The script gitanjoli is a composed from git, song, and anjoli, offering, and thus means An offering of songs but the word for offering, anjoli, has a strong devotional connotation, so the title may also be interpreted as prayer offering of song.The English collection is not a translation of poems from the Bengali volume of the same name. While half the poems (52 out of 103) in the English text were selected from the Bengali volume, others were taken from these work (given with year and number of songs selected for the English text) Gitimallo (1914,17), Noibeddo (1901,15), Khea (1906,11) and a handful from other works. The translations were often radical, leaving out or altering large chunks of the poem and in one(a) instance even fusing two separate poems (song 95, which unifies songs 89,90 of naivedya).The translations were undertaken prior to a visit to England in 1912, where the poems were extremely well received. A slender volume was published in 1913 with an exhilarating preface by W B Yeats and in the same year, based on a corpus of three thin translations, Rabindranath became the first non-European to take in the Nobel price for Literature. Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls Where rowing come out from the depth of truthWhere tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the down(p) desert sand of dead habit Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. This is the vision that the poet had for the India of his dreams Gitanjali is a song of offering to the motherland (India), and to the deity that reigns upon the land. At times, it seems the poet has modify the divinity in the form of a person at other times he refers to the divinity in the abstract. Though the poetry is beautiful and aromatic of nature, it is at times disjointed.The common thread that binds the poem is the relationship between the singer and the object of his adoration. Like most poetry, this song too is introspective as the poet seeks to come to terms with his dreams. This song is more akin to a mosaic than a painting the key to understanding this song is that the poet has interwoven number of (un) think themes together. Rabindranath Tagore Indias first Nobel laureate was a poet, playwright, artist and composer. In fact, he translated many of his works from the original Bengali.Besides Gitanjali, he is also surmount cognize for two songs Amar Shonar Bangla and Jana Mana Gana, which are the national anthems of Bangladesh and India respectively. But Tagore is loved as much for his music (Rabindra Sangeet) as for his poetry. In fact, the two are inseparable and deeply intertwined in popular Bengali consciousness. He was also a leading light in Indias freedom movement, though his leadership was more of a example (rather than political) nature. Last but not least Rabindranath Tagore was also an educationist, and founded the famous school at Shantiniketan (or abode of peace).The school was later expanded into a University. Rabindranath Tagore believed that learning should best be imparted in a natural environment. Some of the leading laureates of the school include Indira Gandhi, Satyajit Ray and Amartya Sen. Gitanjali is a collection of prose poems by Indian author Rabindranath Tagore. The capital of Delaware Thrift Edition contains an introductory note on the life of Tagore, who lived from 1861 to 1941. According to this note, Tagore, who wrote poetry in Bengali, translated Gitanjali himself into English. The Dover edition also contains a 1912 introduction by William Butler Yeats.This English version of Gitanjali is a series of prose poems that reflect on the interrelationships among the poet/speaker, the deity, and the world. Although Tagore had a Hindu background, the spirituality of this book is generally expressed in prevalent terms I could imagine a Christian, a Buddhist, a Muslim, or an adherent of another tradition finding much in this book that would chance upon with him or her. The language in this book is often very beautiful. The imagery includes flowers, bird songs, clouds, the sun, etc. one line about the riotous excess of the stool reminded me of Walt Whitman.Tagores language is sensuous and sometimes embraces paradox. Like Whitman and Emily Dickinson, he sometimes seems to be resisting traditional religion and prophetically looking towards a new spirituality. A sample of Tagores style I surely know the hundred petals of a lotus will not remain closed for ever and the abstruse recess of its hone y will be bared (from section 98). As companion texts for this mystical volume I would recommend Jack Kerouacs The scripture of the Golden Eternity and Juan Mascaros translation of the Dhammapada.