Gitanjali

The Complete Poems of Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali

Gitanjali

Described by Rabindranath Tagore as 'revelations of my true self', the poems and songs of Gitanjali established the writer's literary talent worldwide. They include eloquent sonnets such as the famous 'Where the mind is without fear', intense explorations of love, faith and nature ('Light, oh where is the light?') and tender evocations of childhood ('When my play was with thee'). In this new translation to mark Tagore's one-hundred-and-fiftieth birth anniversary, William Radice renders with beauty and precision the poetic rhythm and intensity of the Bengali originals. In his arrangement of Tagore's original sequence of poems alongside his translations, Radice restores to Gitanjali the structure, style and conception that were hidden by W. B. Yeats's edition of 1912, making this book a magnificent addition to the Tagore library.

Gitanjali Reborn

Radice, himself a recognized English poet and erudite scholar, delved into the deeper meaning of Tagore’s poems and songs, and discussed his ideas on education and the environment with an insight probably no other Westerner has. He also translated Tagore’s short stories and short poems, and finally was able to make a complete breakthrough by translating Gitanjali afresh and restoring Tagore’s original English manuscript. Martin Kämpchen lives in Santiniketan, West Bengal and Germany and is a reputed Tagore scholar and writer.