Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore (UBS Publishers)

Rabindranath Tagore was an Indian poet, writer, and composer. He was born in Calcutta to a very prominent family and was the youngest of thirteen children The Tagores were known for the contributions to the Bengali Renaissance, a movement that took place in the Bengal region of the British Raj. 

Rabindranath Tagore is also the first non-European and the first Indian national to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 for his English translation of his book Gitanjali which translates to Song Offerings. He is also known for writing books, short stories, and essays. He wrote his first poem when he was only eight-years-old.

Gitanjali was first published in his native language of Bengali in 1910 and contained one hundred and fifty seven poems. Tagore translated his own poems into English and they were subsequently published by the India Society in England in 1912. The English collection only includes one-hundred and three of the original poems. The “songs” are based on the themes of love, devotion, and the quest to find spiritual enlightenment. 

The book has been translated into almost all the languages spoken in India and many other languages around the world. There is even an edition available in Braille. The new edition of these poems are transposed on beautiful pictures of India and its people.

USB Publishers in association with Visva Bharati University decided to create a special edition of the book including facsimiles of the original lyrics in Bengali and published the book in 2003. The book includes one hundred and three of his poems, plus a message from the Prime Minister of India, and introductions to the book by W.B. Yeats and excerpts from Andre Gide for the French translation, Ivo Stornilol’s prologue to his Portuguese translation and an excerpt from Suko Watanabe’s prologue to his Japanese translation of the book. 

Also included at the end of the book is Tagore’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech he gave on May 26, 1921 in Stockholm, Sweden. The gist of his speech is that not only literature, but education in general should be shared throughout the entire world. The East and West should continue to exchange ideas and learn from each other and should continue to do so in the future.

Even if one is not religious, it is easy to understand Tagore's devotion to a supreme being. The first poem begins: 

Thou hast made me endless, such is thy pleasure.

This frail vessel thou emptiest again and again.

and fillest it ever with fresh life.

The poems ends with: 

Thy infinite gifts come to me only on these very small hands of mine.

Ages pass, and still thou poorest, and still there is room to fill. 

The only thing a reader may have difficulty with is the English that Tagore uses. The poems are filled with words which sound obsolete today and are often associated with the Bible. Almost all the poems include the words thee, thou, thy, etc, but one has to take into consideration when the poems were written.

The book is also a great introduction to Indian literature. Aside from the biblical-like words, the language is easy to understand and it makes for a pleasurable reading experience. ~Ernie Hoyt