Books with title Gitanjali

Gitanjali: Rabindranath Tagore is an English translation of various poems and works of the legendary Indian poet Shri Rabindranath Tagore. Translated by Tagore himself, the book contains fifty-three translated poems from the original Bengali version of Gitanjali: Rabindranath Tagore, as well as fifty other poems from eight of his other works on poetry and a drama titled Achalayatan. An integration of two words, 'Git' and 'Anjali,' meaning song and offering respectively, the literal meaning of the word is 'offering of songs.' and because of the strong devotional tone and subliminal spiritual incitation, the book can be said to have devotion to god as its theme. It highlights the poet's intense response to the magnificence of the universe or rather an affirmation of life with all its abundance, mystery and diversity.

First published in English in 1912, “Gitanjali”, or “Song Offerings”, is a collection of poems translated by the author, Rabindranath Tagore, from the original Bengali. It contains over 100 inspirational poems by India’s greatest poet and earned Tagore the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. Tagore, known as the “Bard of Bengal”, was born in 1861 to a wealthy family and started writing poetry as a child and began publishing critically acclaimed verses as a teenager. Tagore went on to write novels, stories, and dramas, work which would reshape Bengali literature and culture. He first published the “Gitanjali” collection of poems, widely considered to be one of his best works, in his native Bengali language in 1911. The original Bengali version contained over 150 verses and many were combined or edited out when Tagore translated them into English. Deeply spiritual and devotional, Tagore’s poems are primarily concerned with love and the conflict between earthly desires and spiritual passions and longings. Tagore also spoke eloquently and movingly of his connection to the natural world. This volume includes the introduction by William Butler Yeats that accompanied the original 1912 English language version. This edition includes a biographical afterword.