Product Description
Moving, heart-felt prose poems by the beloved and much admired Bengali poet and mystic who first achieved international fame (and a Nobel Prize) in 1913 with his translation of these moving poems. Reminiscent of Blake and Gibran, they include many works that are almost biblical in their rhythms, phrasing and images. With an introduction by William Butler Yeats.
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Customer Reviews (30)

Wrong versions of the book receiving bad reviews
The two low star reviews of this book appear to be referring to different versions than the one for sale on this page.The poems are numbered andit seems unlikely that there are copyright issues as the book has been available for some time.

Is there a way for Amazon to remove or monitor the inaccurate reviews?

Reflects the essence of the Indian culture
If there is only one Indian poetry book you are able to read, it should be Tagore's Gitanjali. It is a delightful book. Originally, Tagore wrote it in Bengali, and then translated it to English. I'm glad he did that. The world is able to enjoy his poems. He was awarded the Nobel prize for literature, for this book.
These poems are the essence of the Indian culture. They reflect the soul of India. They are highly philosophical and yet simple as the rain clouds, summer rain, stars, shy bride and the parched land, which he describes. They are soothing, soft and gentle. One does not have to be a Hindu to enjoy this book. Tagore's God is formless and above religions. To him, God is mother, father, king, lover and friend. Indian poets like Subramania Bharathi have also portrayed God in such forms.
Tagore's Words:
"He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and the path maker is breaking stones"
"Life of my life, I shall every try to keep my body pure, knowing that they living touch is upon all my limbs"
"My desires are many and my cry is pitiful, but ever didst thou save me by hard refusals"
"I had my invitation to the world's festival, and thus my life has been blessed. My eyes have seen and my ears have heard"
"Give me the strength never to disown the poor or bend my knees before insolent might"
"In this playhouse of infinite forms, I have had my play and here have I caught sight of him that is formless"
"The flowers have been woven and the garland is ready for the bridegroom. After the wedding the bride will leave her home and meet her lord alone in the solitude of night"

The beauty is endless. Every line is a gem. This is a book which will change your life forever.

Please dont buy this copy as it is poorl y formatted and I am sure there may be a copyright violation
This version from Filiquarian is not formatted properly. I myself want to return this book but it would be a hassle for just 4$.

I will be complaining with Amazon to check for the copyright issue with the publishers.

Extraordinary
The shipment and the condition of the book were perfect, and the poems convey unparalleled feelings.

Gitanjali
Simply one of the best books I have ever read. Very moving, and more importantly gives you a real perspective on life. ... Read more

Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Poetry / Asian; Poetry / General; ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

the gardener
excellent collection of indian poetry.found it accidently while browsing in a huge 6 story library.quite a lucky find.

Visiting a flower garden in a magic ancient kingdom
"Please, make me the gardener of your flower garden", a lover asks his beloved. He calls himself a servant and his beloved the queen. He dreamsto serve her idle days. He wants to keep fresh the grassy path where she walks in the morning; he wants her feet to be greeted with praise at every step by the flowers.

And what he wants for his reward? He asks to be allowed to hold her little fists like tender lotus-buds and slip flower chains over her wrists; to tinge the soles of her feet with the red juice of flower petals and kiss away the speck of dust that may chance to linger there.

This is the way Rabindranath Tagore, the greatest Indian poet of all times, introduce us to this enchanted collection of poems, poems that touch the most profound strings of our hearts. His poems tell us about love and life - and they are rich with the description of nature and beauty. Anybody that loves or has loved cannot remain indifferent to his poems. Some readers "have smiles, sweet and simple, and some a sly twinkle in their eyes. Some have tears that well up in the daylight, and others tears that are hidden in the gloom." But we all have need for him, the poet, who is "ever as young or as old as the youngest and the oldest of the village".

His poems tell us of impossible love - like the love of the free bird and the cage bird: "Their love is intense with longing, but they never can fly wing to wing. Through the bars of the cage they look, and vain is their wish to know each other. They flutter their wings in yearning, and sing, 'Come closer, my love!' The free bird cries, 'It cannot be, I fear the closed doors of the cage.' The cage bird whispers, 'Alas, my wings are powerless and dead.' "

His poems tell us of secret love: "The young traveler came along the road in the rosy mist of the morning. He stopped before my door and asked me with an eager cry, 'Where is she?' For very shame I could not say, 'She is I, young traveler, she is I.' "

His poems tell us of lovers' emotion: "When my love comes and sits by my side, when my body trembles and my eyelids droop, the night darkens, the wind blows out the lamp, and the clouds draw veils over the stars. It is the jewel at my own breast that shines and gives light. I do not know how to hide it."

His poems tell us of the need for love confidence: "Do not keep to yourself the secret of your heart, my friend! Say it to me, only to me, in secret. You who smile so gently, softly whisper, my heart will hear it, not my ears."

His poems tell us of a love story: "Hands cling to hands and eyes linger on eyes: thus begins the record of our hearts. It is the moonlit night of March; the sweet smell of henna is in the air; my flute lies on the earth neglected and your garland of flowers is unfinished. This love between you and me is simple as a song."

His poems tell us of lovers departing: "An unbelieving smile flits on your eyes when I come to you to take my leave. I have done it so often that you think I will soon return. To tell you the truth I have the same doubt in my mind. For the spring days come again time after time; the full moon takes leave and comes on another visit, the flowers come again and blush upon their branches year after year, and it is likely that I take my leave only to come to you again. But keep the illusion awhile; do not send it away with ungentle haste.When I say I leave you for all time, accept it as true, and let a mist of tears for one moment deepen the dark rim of your eyes. Then smile as archly as you like when I come again."

Reading those poems I felt like visiting a flower garden full of scents and beauty in a magic ancient kingdom. ... Read more

Product Description
The first Asian writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, Rabindranath Tagore mesmerized the world with his spiritual insights and finely wrought writings. This comprehensive and engaging anthology gathers his polymathic achievement, from the extraordinary humanity of The Post Officer to memoirs, letters, essays and conversations, short stories, extracts from the celebrated novel The Home and the World, poems, songs, epigrams, and paintings. This inspired collection of works by one of this century's most profound writers in an essential guide for readers seeking to understand Indian literature, culture, and wisdom, and the perfect reintroduction of Tagore's magnificence to American readers.
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Customer Reviews (8)

Illumination
Tagore is widely admired by the Indian people (those who are literate). He detested the cast system, and wrote about freedom, not only in thought but the freedom to be who you want to be. His wife gave him heartburn, because as a snotty Indian Brahmin she looked down on those beneath her.
The English (via the East Indian Trading Company) ruled India until Ghandi fought for its independence in 1947. Although many Indians received a good education from the British, I believe there must be underlying resentment (like the Koreans feel for the Japanese). Tagore disagreed with Ghandi; Gandhi insisted an earthquake was caused by the sins and stupidity of the Indian people. Tagore felt God doesn't punish us with natural disasters. Ghandi disagreed, saying in this case, God made an exception.

His conversations with Einstein (in Germany) were almost unintelligible, since Einstein, a physicist, was not a God realized person. Tagore speaks with utter simplicity, while Einstein babbled on with intellectual absurdities.

His play, the Post Office, is beautiful, about a sick child who wants to be free, to go out and play, but is held back by his father and an incompetent doctor. It's an allegory about man's destiny to be free in spirit, but remains bound by religious dogma and intolerance. The child in the end dies, but free at last.

Much of what Tagore writes is beautifully simple, he's a craftsman. He was an educated Hindu who traveled, who loved Yeats' poetry and Dickens. Joseph Goebbels loved the Post Office, as it was performed in Nazi Germany.

Despite the glorious spiritual tradition which India gives us, most Indians don't have a clue what it's all about.

The soul of the man
When I was in London in September 2006, I visited the British Museum.The first exhibit I saw as I entered the building was of the paintings and writings of Tagore.I was deeply moved by his inspiring words and decided I needed to read more, know more, about this man.I found this anthology to be just what I was looking for.It contains his words, and gave me insight into the man behind them.Certainly his words reveal the soul.A "can't miss" if that is your aim.

Competent introduction to Tagore
If the only thing that you read in this book were the short play "The Post Office", then it would still be worth the price.The ending of the play is one of many moments scattered throughout the pages that had an almost physical impact on me as a reader.

It a testimony to the sheer strength of Tagore as a writer that the reader is able to have those moments while reading this anthology. It unfortunately suffered from many of the typical problems of this kind of collection. The selections often felt too shallow and abbreviated. The quality of the translations varied wildly from chapter to chapter.

As a reader, I would have appreciated it if Dutta and Robinson had refrained from excerpting the longer prose works and instead had concentrated on deepening the selection of letters, short stories and essays. Reading an excerpt of a longer work is bound to be a frustrating exercise, and the space was used at the expense of material more natural for this kind of collection.

I picked this up to give me an overview of Tagore as a writer. It served that purpose admirably. Recommended for someone with the same task in mind.

Pure Illumination
This anthology was my introduction to Tagore and what a spectacular discovery!It was like being introduced to several writers, each one distinctly different, dependent upon the medium.

Tagore's five short stories in this anthology are folkloric, sometimes sad or humorous, somewhat other worldly, and always entertaining.They expose the hues of Bengal better than paintings with their brilliant characterizations and finite details of place and time.Here's a sampling from The Raj Seal: "An old story came to his mind.An ass was pulling a temple car along the sacred way, and the passers-by, prostrating themselves in the dust before it were offering their pranams. 'They are all worshipping me,' the foolish ass thought. 'There's only one small difference between that ass and me,'the elder brother told himself.'I have at last realized that it is not my person the British sahibs respect, but the jacket weighing on my shoulders.'"

Tagore's play The Post Office is included in its entirety.It's very childlike and simplistic in structure, yet it is poignantly profound with its message that death is serene; "...that great ocean of truth to which all life returns".

The Nobel Prize for literature was awarded to him in 1913.Part of the tribute was for Tagore's poetry, particularly Gitanjali; however, there is too small of a sample (four stanzas) to truly appreciate it.My favorite from the anthology was Flute Music, an autobiographical poem.

Tagore the philosopher is evident in his essays and letters.In his letters he takes on the persona to whom the letter is addressed.The debate with Einstein "On the Nature of Reality" leaves the reader uncertain as to who was more convincing.A rebuke to Gandhi reads like the good counsel of a loving older brother.(It was Tagore who gave Gandhi the honorific title, Mahatma.)

The three excerpts from his novel The Home and the World have induced me to order the book, which is still in print.When Hermann Hesse reviewed the German translation, he praised it for its "purity and grandeur".

Now, I could only hope for more of his writings to become translated and accessible.

Extraordinairy Selections & Literary Achievement
With immense pleasure and great anticipation I read this Anthology. I feel the world is ready for Tagore's poems, short stories, and plays once more. His interest in world peace, his sensitivity for the human condition, and love of humanity is the kind of message the world needs, perhaps *even* more today than when the author first wrote his words. As with most translations of this author's famous work - there is a wonderful and necessary "Introduction" which gives many examples of his life experiences, interests, and achievements, helping one to sense the broad scope of knowledge and range of ideas to which the reader will be exposed.

Krishna Dutta and Andrew Robinson so wisely selected his play, "The Post Office" as the first chapter. This play is like a pearl found in an oyster shell ... the outside appearance gives no impression of the valuable gem to be found within. The message is breath-taking in its simplicity and sublime due to its universal message which transcends culture and time. The beauty of this Anthology is the wide range and depth of Tagore's writing to which the reader is exposed. His writing is awesome and inspiring, filled with love for mankind, by one who sees the complete picture, but nonetheless is filled with hope. We read Rabindranath Tagore's memoirs in "My Remininscences" - we learn about his relationship with his father, a journey into the Himalayas, and his boyhood days. Tagore's travel writings about Russia, Japan, England, Java, Persia, and a day at the spa in Balatonfured, Hungary are fascinating to read. We have the privilege of reading Tagore's personal letters to his neice, the poet Yeats, the poet Ezra Pound, many of his friends, the philosopher, Bertrand Russell, and many other people with whom he corresponded. From this one garner's more about the personality of the man whom Tagore was, a person who lived his values and beliefs, not one who merely just wrote about them. We read a fascinating exchange of ideas with Albert Einstein on "The Nature of Reality." Tagore's mastery of the short story has won him recognition in Bengal and throughout the world. He conveys social, political, and human relationships of the villager and city dweller with equal ability. He gradually exposes feelings and conflicts, and carefully builds suspense until the mystery is revealed or thesituation is resolved often with unexpected consequences. Although fewer poems are included than one would expect, two important ones, "The Sick Bed" and "The Recovery", written toward the end of his life are included. Also, "The Ocean of Peace" a song Tagore himself planned to sing after a play, was instead sung for him at his funeral, which he requested while he was ill. If someone is unfamiliar with Tagore's writing this book is highly recommended as a starting point. It contains a full measure of the author's broad interests and truly represents the universal message, "the unity of mankind" which he attempted to convey in his writing.
Erika Borsos (erikab93) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Unending love
For those still working on feeling God's love or seeing it beyond immediate presentation, see if this resonates with you.


I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times...
In life after life, in age after age, forever.
My spellbound heart has made and remade the necklace of songs,
That you take as a gift, wear round your neck in your many forms,
In life after life, in age after age, forever.

Whenever I hear old chronicles of love, it's age old pain,
It's ancient tale of being apart or together.
As I stare on and on into the past, in the end you emerge,
Clad in the light of a pole-star, piercing the darkness of time.
You become an image of what is remembered forever.

You and I have floated here on the stream that brings from the fount.
At the heart of time, love of one for another.
We have played along side millions of lovers,
Shared in the same shy sweetness of meeting,
the distressful tears of farewell,
Old love but in shapes that renew and renew forever.

Today it is heaped at your feet, it has found its end in you
The love of all man's days both past and forever:
Universal joy, universal sorrow, universal life.
The memories of all loves merging with this one love of ours -
And the songs of every poet past and forever.

~Rabindranath Tagore

The Heart of God
Fabulous collection from many of Tagore's books. Herbert Vetter has done a superb job. More importantly it brings out the greatness of Tagore. Short simple to read but very poignant.

The Heart of God: Prayers of Rabindranath Tagore
this is a wonderful bedside book...the poems are what i would call in depth minimalist style writings...this might be a contradiction in terms but every word is positioned just right in tagors syntax...he is i guess what you would say famous for his going to the core of what he is trying to say...yet he excludes nothing and every poem is titled well...so you can a navigate the book with ease...this is my first tagore book and i have another...fireflies...on the way...pleasant reading

Timeless Prayers of Tagore
This collection of seventy-seven poems of the Nobel Laureate poet of India is taken from seven sources of his poetry. The editor has skillfully degenderized and introduced contemporary language where he deemed appropriate. The beauty of Tagore's spirit and his eloquence will be augmented for some by the editor's gifts. Long familiar with Tagore's own translations of his poetry, I find in this collection extreme satisfaction in accessing the presence of the poet in images of rare beauty.This book is an important addition to the literature, providing
fresh acquaintance with a master poet.

The Heart of God:Prayers of Rabindranath Tagore
In prayers and poems of depth and simplicity,Tagore expresses his very soul...which is somehow the soul of each of us.

Obviously a spiritual master, he speaks for each of our hearts with a depth of compassion and honesty that embraces universal and timeless themes.Human struggle, delight, quest, hope, trust, joy, despair, and peace are expressed in a compelling commitment to Love which draws him only into deeper intimacy with the Beloved.

Tagore puts into words a love which surpasses understanding, time, or any methodology.He speaks in his writings a very human, very real, very tender love letter to the Divine.

I liked this book because it draws me also into the heart of God. ... Read more

Product Description
Set on a Bengali noble's estate in 1908, this is both a love story and a novel of political awakening. The central character, Bimala, is torn between the duties owed to her husband, Nikhil, and the demands made on her by the radical leader, Sandip. Her attempts to resolve the irreconciliable pressures of the home and world reflect the conflict in India itself, and the tragic outcome foreshadows the unrest that accompanied Partition in 1947. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

the classic triangle in orient style
The story can be read as a prelude to Jim et Jules. Two man love the same women yet in a completely reversed way. The first (the husband) loves her by giving complete freedom. The second loves her as an idol. The woman is in a way forced to this idolation because of the freedom she had received.
The intelligent story can push the right buttons on human spirit to silence it. In an other perspective the book is a cry against nationalism.

the Home and the world
I'm sure it's a great book, only i haven't received it - after TWO months waiting since I ordered it. Yet I'm being asked to review the purchase?
hmmm.

A good introduction to Tagore
The Home and the World has been variously praised and criticized for reasons having little to do with its literary merit.To my mind, the praise comes largely from reviewers' admiration for the author and the totality of his life and works, rather than this particular work.The criticism comes largely from reviewers' disagreement with his political views, or what they think were his political views.

It is, of course, always hard to judge the literary value of a work in translation.Many subtleties of language and reference are necessarily lost.Some reviewers have found the language ponderous.I did not.This is a short book and very readable.I would consider this book as a good introduction to Tagore's thought and style.

Some have said that the main character Nikhil is too good to be believable.I think it is true that Nikhil represents a philosophy of life more than a real flesh-and-blood person.However, a main point of the book is that Nikhil's "goodness" also appears to be weakness.Certainly his wife, Bimala, reacts that way to him at certain points.If Tagore wants to explore the relation between goodness and weakness, then creating a character such as Nikhil seems entirely appropriate, even if it makes the book more a novel of ideas than a novel about real people.There is room in this world for many types of novels.

There is no doubt that Tagore's life work as a whole is monumental.His religious poem, Gitanjali, is more widely recognized than this novel as an expression of his views and writing skill.But poetry is even harder to translate than prose and probably not as accessible to the average reader.

Regarding Tagore's political views, some critics felt that The Home and the World pandered to the British because he did not show support for all elements of the anti-British Swadeshi movement.Tagore was definitely not pro-British.But neither did he support intimidation or terrorism against fellow-Indians as means of fighting British dominance in India.

Tagore had a long and public debate with his friend Gandhi regarding India's future.This correspondence is available in book form (The Mahatma and the Poet: Letters and Debates between Gandhi and Tagore 1915-1941).Those who would judge a person for his political views should learn them first-hand and not just through the opinions of others.

Indelible Drama
Rabindranath Tagore did very well to choose the structure he did for this short dramatic novel.It is successfully written from the three points of view of the protaganists, the chapters interlocked as "Bimala's Story", "Nikhil's Story" and "Sandip's Story".It is a powerful drama of awakening, ideology, courage and tragedy.It would make a terrific opera!
The language has an unfamiliar, florid quality that takes a bit of adjustment but I quickly adapted to the Bengali lushness.It is a very poignant tale of three people enmeshed in the intolerable situation of the British partition of Bengal and foreign occupation.Written early in the 20th Century Tagore foreshadows the Indian independence movement that will come later in the century and the idea of the liberation of women.
The unintended consequenses that result from the relationship of the three main players is predictable and tumultuous and a suitable metaphor for the terrible circumstances that were tearing through Bengal and other parts of India at that time.I was deeply moved by the work in spite of the harsh criticism it received at the time of it's original publication.

Poetic Fog
Ok ok... I know that Tagore is such an important figure in the literature and the history of India's independence struggle. And I recognize that he is a fantastic poet. Thing is, I prefer poets writing poems, not whole novels. Perhaps it is a flaw with my personality, but I found reading The Home and The World and exhaustive experience. The fluffy, poetic language throughout interrupted the flow of the intense drama that Tagore describes. I found this book, thus, incredibly difficult to read. Still, it provides an important metaphor for the struggles of india's independence movement and a good vein for familiarizing oneself with that time and place. Still, approach this book with a lot of patience. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (7)

FABULOUS!!!
the songs of kabir, which were translated in this edition < 100 years ago, is an inspiring, uplifting, loving, divine product.i am not a professional translator, thus, i am not able to comment on the accuracy of the translated product, other than to say that the final product is beautiful and seems to capture the essence of the man of whom i've read about.while this is a relatively short read, i've preferred to visit it daily, reading a page or two or three.it seems that when i read such a book that way, i am better able to understand the next piece.now free on amazon kindle, i strongly recommend this to all readers with an interest in self development, mysticism, and sufi thought.this certainly merits an "A".

Songs of Kabir review
To be able to read the words of a religious thinker from the 15th century is incredible!My suggestion is to initially skip the introduction, which is quite lengthy, and jump right into the verses.Then return later and read about Kabir's life as it is believed to have been.It takes a little practice to be able to flow with his style, but don't give up, set it aside for awhile and let your mind ruminate on the words, then return to the verses.I was amazed at his ability to 'see' God, Beloved, etc. in all facets of the world around him.And to understand at a deeper level than most people that everything from Him and about Him is love.I thank the people that are responsible for making writings such as this available and affordable to the everyday reader.

Sublime
Rabindranath Tagore won the Nobel prize for literature with his 'Gitanjali', however i am not always that mad on his poetry... this however is something different.

I have not read any of the other translations of Kabirs poetry, must have to say that this is atmospheric, and whilst reading this work for the first three or four times my heart was smoldering within me. the burning fire of love. this guy Kabir was an absolute master. i feel almost embarassed not giving this book five stars. this book is pointing so clearly towards truth and love.

i am still reading the songs of Kabir, though have leant it to a friend for a few days. loved it so much had to share with someone else! i have recently read some of Tukaram's Abhangas (songs), rather wonderful, more worshipful than Kabir, but less immersed in love. his language of love is less real than Kabirs. Mirabai... is more of longing 'after' the love has gone, not as inspiring as Kabir or Tukaram. all pretty special in their own way. i would rank Kabir as first among these three.

though having always said that to me the ultimate has to be Love, i say that i belive this to the utter depths and bottom of my heart and though beliving this so surely have to with dejection say that i the least of lovers, he who has harmed more than done good am smitten at the feet of God, unworthy even to be called his slave, even his toe nails - unworthy to look upon. i say this with absolute honesty.

... but with hope and i hope i am not deceived, he reassures me that i am his. that he loves me and that he is using me... though how is often a matter of sore perplexion to me.

so i the least of lovers, the most hateful of the most hateful, bow before and offer my worship to Loving Kindness Himself. knowing that i am unworthy, in the sight of God and in the sight of men, to be called his disciple.

i was exhorted to love, above all things to love, but when i tried to i found and still find myself unable to do so... thank God for the Grace and mercy found in Jesus Christ, who is my only hope.

with my scrap of love, from, flakey. xxx

ps. some musings on the fire of love... the fire of love may burn within, or simply be a little glow, this warmth we feel from time to time within our hearts may become a raging flame. from the fire of love we receive the light of truth and from the light of truth we find the colours of being. the one being potentially the many and the many being potentially the one. the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God who is 'fire'". (Blaise Pascal). light represents truth and awareness is truth, truth is also life. if a being has awareness (and all do) then it has truth and having truth it has life. even the inanimate has life. mountains, cups, seeds and fields. awareness (truth) is aware of colour or being which is 'consciousness'. consciousness arises from awareness. beings, themselves conscious, arise from awareness, and yet the objects/forms we percieve are objective realities. only that perception often filters what it sees. one will see 'i', another will see '1'. another will see both. and another none. so as my friend told me... we should try to remove our filters and view reality objectively. possible? seek and ye shall find.tc.

another metaphor is of the 'roaring' of the flame as being the 'word'. it is a sound and is spoken. the word being one... it is 'i'. i am one, you are one... one is an individual. the word is subject. in having a subject we see an object. the object is 'you' two. the word produces 'knowledge'. knowledge is not 'understanding' (truth) though the subject seeks to understand the object in order to love. i seek to understand you. knowledge is 'knowing', deep down. some will say that words can only point towards this, others will say that certain words are transcendent. roaring of flame, is like light of flame. the word is also a vibration, as is being... sound, the music of light, the roaring of flame. every word being a sound is in our mind as a vibratory word, it is words that can activate 'knowledge', the words being themselves little miracles in the mind... so truth 'understanding' may be expressed in a simple smile, and word/sound in a complex harmony, essay or conversation, both 'truth' and 'knowledge', proceed from the flames of love, being different they complement each other.tc. ***

Profound, but public domain
This is a classic translation of Kabir. So classic that you don't have to pay to read, print or distribute it. So unless you're particularly interested in Andrew Harvey's new introduction, you might want to shop around for a cheaper, or free, copy of this unusually profound text.

Archaic language, often stilted prose
Tagore wrote these translations a century ago. The language is often stilted or archaic.

However, I sense that these translations may be truer to the original than Robert Bly's. Indeed, reading these helped me to understand that some language that I thought was Kabir's was actually Bly's. For instance, I was always impressed with the line in Bly's translation that refers to a place "where those who live are not afraid to die."

But in Tagore's translation, that same reference was something to the effect of a place where there is no fear of death. The contrast between the living and the dead was not Kabir's but Bly's.

If I could only read one translation I would read Bly's. But why read only one? ... Read more

Product Description
Poet, novelist, painter and musician, Rabindranath Tagore (1861 1941) is the grand master of Bengali culture. Written during the 1890s, the stories in this selection brilliantly recreate vivid images of Bengali life and landscapes in their depiction of peasantry and gentry, casteism, corrupt officialdom and dehumanizing poverty. Yet Tagore is first and foremost India's supreme Romantic poet, and in these stories he can be seen reaching beyond mere documentary realism towards his own profoundly original vision. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Portraits of Bengali Life
Rabindranath Tagore is the author of over ninety short stories. The thirty stories in this collection are from the 1890s. He deals with themes of loneliness, death, illness, abusive marriages, family life, jealousy, suicide, revenge, beauty and war.

I'm not really a fan of novels or short stories but these stories seemed exotic enough to hold my attention. As I read through the book I decided to only read the stories that garnered my attention on the first page. My favorite stories include:

"The Living and The Dead" - A story filled with suspense. This story has a very unexpected ending. A woman is found dead but she is revived and must convince her relatives that she is not a ghost.

"Profit and Loss" - This story presents the harsh realities of arranged marriages.

"False Hope" - A fantasy story in the mist with a touch of sarcasm.

"Fury Appeased" - A story with a nice twist at the end. In this story a woman who is scorned gets her revenge in a very creative way.

A glossary at the end of the book helps to define Indian words used in the stories and letters. There are also about 24 pages of letters written by Tagore. For the most part the stories transport the reader to another time and place and this is what makes them so enjoyable. Once I was entranced by a story I was always delighted by the creative conclusion.

~The Rebecca Review

'to the east an imponderable past.....
.... to the west an unknowable future.' This quote is not about Bengalis - it is about all of us (see 'Thakurda'). For those reviewers who disliked these stories I accept your right to have your view - but I would, if I had one wish granted in which I could influence you, have you read them again with a more open heart, more perceptive eyes. ('Thukurda would be a good story to start with - it is one of the more positive ones, or 'Kabuliwalah'.)

These stories are about Bengalis - people who are different to the majority of Tagore's readers - and poor people too. But Tagore's way of blending these people with the country they live in and the circumstances of their lives - grim though they might be - gives them a real place in my heart and thoughts (and I do recognise that modern Bengalis might be quite different from Tagore's Bengalis - even so, I feel greatly enriched).

My only 'criticism' of Tagore is not something he could do anything about - he was the wealthy amongst the poor, so many poor that even had he given all his wealth away he would have made no dent in the majority of these people's lives. But what he did not do was shut his eyes to their circumstances, blind himself to them in the way all meat eaters blind themselves to what goes on in an abbatoir. And perhaps, by keeping his eyes open, Tagore was able to exercise his influence over these people in a more understanding and supportive way.

By chance I was reading these stories on a trip to Fiji with my family (I read 'Thakurda' to all of them because it is such a beautiful story). When I had finished the stories I was looking for something else to read and, by chance, came across a second-hand copy of 'Afoot in England' by W H Hudson, one of my favourite writers (how this got to be on sale in Levuka is a great mystery - but one I greatly appreciated). Hudson, in this book, does not write short stories - he narrates incidents and some of the historic background behind them. Like Tagore, place (and in Hudson's case, especially birds) are integral to all the tales he tells. The other big difference with Hudson is that he is a peasant amongst peasants. I find this enchanting in a way that Tagore can sometimes seem to me to be a bit distant.

Other recommended reading:

'Home and the World' - Rabindranath Tagore
'Afoot in England' - W H Hudson
'Idle Days in Patagonia' - W H Hudson
'Wanderings in South America' - Charles Waterton (for something a bit different!)

Boo Hoo -- Total Crap
I have no clue why Rabindranath Tagore was regarded as the greatest poet of India -- I DO know why he has been justly forgotten! Just read this book! I couldnt even get through all of the stories. It was just the same thing over and over again. One sob story after another. none of the characters spoke or acted realistically and all of the stories were unhappy tear-jerkers. Why someone who writes such maudlin junk is regarded as a great writer I just do not understand. Chitra Banerjeee Divakaruni writes more realistically than this and she's just a hack too! Saveyour money and read something from a decent modern Parsee writer like Mistry or Umrigar.

Would have given it no stars
if possible. This is just a collection of mushy, sentimentalist garbage ... and if you are not Indian (or Bengali), please ... dont buy this thinking it will give you any accurate idea of Indian life and society at any given point in time. I have never understood why Tagore has such a reputation as a writer of novels and short stories ... stick to his music and art (which ARE terrific) and avoid this stuff at all costs.

Vivid, Magnificent, Haunting, Mysterious Stories
Rabindranath Tagore is best known for his Bengali devotional songs, which were translated to English as poetry. His most famous book of poems, Gitanjali, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. However, Tagore also wrote short stories which reflect the people, customs, social structure, turmoil, and relationships of the times in which they were written. When the stories were written, Tagore lived on a houseboat. He watched the ebb and flow of life in villages along the river. He captured the essential features of Bengali village life. He saw the caste system, the inequality, the struggles and limitations imposed on people. He wrote about the realities he witnessed. He saw that women were treated as second class citizens, despite their intelligence and talents. He witnessed death as a part of life, when antibiotics had not yet been developed, infections killed children and adults alike. Orphans remained to be raised by next of kin. Tagore manages to capture teh feelings and emotions of the disenfranchised, the poor, and the helpless. His stories are often haunting and eery - the reader gets the feeling for where the stories are leading but suddenly an unexpected twist can change the outcomes. Whatever the theme or topic, Tagore maintains a spiritual awareness or presence in all his stories ... he is sensitive to the innocent, the vulnerable, the unprotected ones in society. His characters have unique personalities. He describes family relationships and exploresprescribed roles and society's expectations. He also reveals what happens when people challenge their roles and fall outside behavioral norms. Although the stories were written in the 1890s, the message Tagore conveys has meaning in modern times.
Expressions of love, respect, and decency toward one's fellow human being are universal, therefore Tagore will be held in high esteem by future generations, just as he has been revered by past and present readers. The content of his stories are not bound by space or culture, they are spiritual and therefore timeless. Erika Borsos (erikab93) ... Read more

Product Description
Beautiful new translation of major writings of Tagore, rep. of a classic, sensitive work by a leading intellectual. Includes manuscript ages, 20 color reproductions of Tagore's paintings. ... Read more

Product Description
All the great utterances of man have to be judged not by the letter but by the spirit--the spirit which unfolds itself with the growth of life in history. We get to know the real meaning of Christianity by observing its living aspect at the present moment--however different that may be, even in important respects, from the Christianity of earlier periods. For western scholars the great religious scriptures of India seem to possess merely a retrospective and archælogical interest; but to us they are of living importance, and we cannot help thinking that they lose their significance when exhibited in labelled cases-mummied specimens of human thought and aspiration, preserved for all time in the wrappings of erudition. The meaning of the living words that come out of the experiences of great hearts can never be exhausted by any one system of logical interpretation. They have to be endlessly explained by the commentaries of individual lives, and they gain an added mystery in each new revelation.Contributors ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

the real deal
His words, his eloquence, his heart are all melodiously written in this wonderful book.It is the bible for opening the heart and letting the self connect with the Self.Shredding fear and Ego to be our tru nature...God

The realisation of western-eastern body of thoughts
The English subtitle "The Realisation of Life" sounds rather ambitious. But it is true that following the advices of the author could bring yourselves to a kind of realizing what makes life more worthy to be lived and loved. But, alas! Life still will have an end! So what? The author would say: To substantiate the eternal! The author, about whom Albert Schweitzer said, he is one of the greatest thinkers of mankind, cannot conceal, that he is a Hindu- or better Brahman- thinker. He is convinced that India could give the world spirituality. Interestingly this is what all spiritually breathed Indians are thinking. India has to be the country where the world-spirit is at home! About this is Tagores writing, about the big Brahman, the big spender, whom to get to know in a spiritual union has to mean the greatest bliss at all.
The author grew up in a family, in which the texts of the Upanishads, the most worthy of all Brahmin texts, were used in daily ceremony. And he had the example of his father in front of his eyes, he who spent his long life in daily efforts to have union with the super-ego. Tagore wants with this book to make the ancient spirit of India available for the reader.
Tagore is in fact a great thinker who has many beautiful thoughts. Nevertheless he is closely linked to Hindu-spirituality. Likewise it is not astonishing when he emphasizes, that life giving words of experience originate in the hearts of people, those very hearts, which also generate evil words, thoughts and actions. In this context his assumption that a religion has to be judged by the momentary stage of development as well as it must have developed by the inward spirituality, virtually enriched by the experience of man, is better understood, but at the same time disproved.
Truths with eternal validity are independent of reasoning man and his lack of insight. But in Hinduism there is no tradition of logical thinking, there is spiritual thinking in which sometimes the wise men appear as elephants or monkeys. And what they have to say is "a" truth, not "the" truth, for these are no usual occurrences which induce the Indians to an enlightment. A life long Tagore scooped out of the verses of the Upanishads and the speeches of Buddha as he said himself. Also it is clearly visible that he uses Christian mindset. This is not unusual for Indian thinkers. Much of his book is from notes of lectures, which he held in Bengali in front of his students.
The texts contain much self-evident wisdom about man and world, which possibly was new to an Indian student in the first half of the 20th century so as for example in the first chapter about the relationship between the individual being and the universe.
Meanwhile we have established sciences dealing with ecological issues. Tagore is meaning the analogy in the realm of spirit. But he also should have realized that India, the "continent of spirituality", suffered centuries long slavery under foreign powers, famine, epidemics and poverty. Exactly his proclaimed visibility of spiritual development presents the Indian sub-continent in an unfavourable light! It is just the opposite!
Significantly Tagore equals his thinking with that of India. Herein he is wrong. He is overdrawing much in his idealism, for example when he stresses the wise handling of the Indians with their forests, which the colonizers of Northern America missed allegedly.
He seems to oversee that India deforested all its territory, except a few inaccessible stretches (already in the times of Tagore). The protection of nature and environment is not an invention of the Indians, rather of the West! He also oversees that in all times there were only a very few people in India who really retreated for contemplations from society to become an eremite or wise man. He instead entertains the legend, that the Indian man is more interested in spirituality than the western man. The momentary economic boom of India, the comprehensible run of an ever broader middle class for welfare, which is welfare of western brand, is showing, what always drives the people mostly.
At least he is admitting Jesus of Nazareth a flash of truth. Truth is for Tagore an Indian invention. And what is this truth? The world-soul and the individual soul are one, the individual soul must comprehend this and then she will draw the right conclusion and influence the surrounding positively. That is the old Brahmin teaching, enriched with ethical mindset which to a major part grew out of Christianity (Tagore is wise enough to understand that the old Brahmin teaching is not complete and needs somehow something which he found in the Christian teachings) and simple truths like as for example: our desires are responsible for limiting the reach of our self-awareness, for hindering the widening of our consciousness and for causing sin which keeps us far away from God and engender disharmony and arrogantpride.

Or, which is for a Hindu an astonishing knowledge: "sin is not simply an action, but a life-attitude, taking for certain that our goal is in the finite, that our Self is the last meaning!" Sometimes you believe to hear a missionary preaching. As such a one Tagore understands himself.
Love is not a topic in Brahmanism, neither in Hinduism outside the Bhakti-mythology it is more than to be defined as a Oneness with God. For Tagore instead love is a big deal. "Therefore I want to repeat that we do not see man correctly if we do not love him." A great sentence if we recognize that Hinduism is not about loving man. It is all about self-realization, self-redemption, the Self that dissolves in the whole.
Tagore is also prophetical when he says: "It is by progress of the natural sciencesthat the wholeness of the world and our Oneness with it becomes clearer for our spirit."
Tagore is a big friend of man. That is spoken out with many of his words. The evil in man seems not to exist really. He is speaking about love, joy, beauty, harmony. Good reading! But there is a lot which is not thoroughly contemplated and sometimes half-truths are more problematic than easily recognized untruths. So far Sadhana (with emphasis on the first a) is a work that should not be read without a critical mind. Typical for Hinduism is that the redemption, as promised by Tagore, is a nebulous becoming one with an impersonal world-soul; the dropping into an ocean of same like finally cleansed individual souls, in the end the extinction of any individual existence. Whereas Christians believe in a blissful continuation of life, the Hindus believe in a blissful extinction.
Somebody who wants to get accustomed to Indian thinking will find good impulses in this book. But then he has to know that Tagore is a thinker who syncretically absorbed all schools of thought that were available to him, to polish them with Indian mindset and pass it off as Indian thinking. A better start would be the reading of (the most important) Upanishads and a (shortened) version of the Baghavad Gita. Tagores teaching could be regarded as a preliminary end of a development, which should not be silent about the fact that exactly the thinking in India was very strongly fertilized by non-Indian ideas.
Tagore is worth reading. If you only want to read one book of him, read this one.

Sadhana the Realization of Life
I found Sadhana moving and uplifting, a book to be savored over and over again.

Beautiful; more than spirit-sustaining.
I am careful in spiritual pursuits--notions of spirituality have to win me by changing me with their beauty and honesty.Tagore's Sadhana does this time and again.

I fell in love with physics and mathematics because of my liking for their perfectness, exactness, and trimness; perfect form.(No large claims; a physics major and math minor, no graduate work.) For the same reasons, vague or inconsistent pictures of the universe are difficult for me to take in--I often take a statement, rework it, rework myself, think carefully, stay honest, and in the end sometimes come up with an expanded understanding of things; almost always the statement and I both must be reworked; there is no problem with that, it is just the natural metabolism of thinking.

But Sadhana is so honest and well thought through that my first reading of it was smooth, beginning to end.And it was expanding.And it was perfect.And it was beautiful because it was true; it was perfectly beautiful; however you want to put it, I was taken.

The book presents a perception of things which goes to their root; fortunately and unfortunately, I find no other words for this than "spiritual;" I must be careful to point out that this spirituality is grounded in the world; it is not pained to explain ugliness; it is honest about things--this honesty does not make it less beautiful; but a rather awe-filled more.The integrity of perception of things is wonderful, and makes it a joy to read;any inch of slack can be overlooked in loo of the expansiveness, truth, and depth of insight provided.

It is the only presentation of a cosmology I have found which seems (to me!) 1. entirely consistent with a physicist's beliefs of the nature of things, and 2. which even encompasses the physicists's awarenesses, without at all attempting to (at least not by the same route).And yet with all this, it is more a work of poetry of the heart than a work of philosophy or analysis.It successfully remains part of the *lived* world.

I would like to continue about how I came to *Sadhana* in the first place, but it is best read in quiet, absent commentary by others.Get to the book.Make it "yours" first, perhaps, and then talk with others (just a thought).

Perhaps I can say this final bit (it only clues you in to the table of contents):

I came to this book a few months after finishing Plato's *Republic*, and I know that Plato's work helped me develop the ideas and questions which led me to find Sadhana.

I felt--coming from my reading and response to *The Republic*--that there was something worthy to pursue related to such notions as beauty, self, soul, and consciousness.Unfortunately, keyword searches on these called up not much helpful; mainly, they were works arrived at with too much fear and desire pushing for a crystallization of philosophy, or which lacked depth of heart.

The best writings I didn't find under these searches, but instead under searches related to poetry, music, or art--nothing directly speaking of "soul," "self," and so forth.Yet I finally queried the library computer for any books which contained all four above words (the initial four).The fact that anything came up at all, with such 'different' notions, was unusual--I approached it warily, yet with subdued and slightly hopeful stride.My wariness soon evaporated away; dissolving.I read.It was Tagore's Sadhana, you assuredly have guessed.

In My Top Ten of World Spiritual Classics
Like the constancy of the great cellestial constellations, Tagore's Sadhana delivers the message of the human connection to universal transcendance in hauntingly beautiful English prose.

Perched as he wasat the cusp of the Twentieth Century, Tagore saw with penetrating insightthe fallacies of the age of science when he wrote,

" The man ofscience knows, in one aspect, that the world is not merely what it appearsto be to our senses; he knows that earth and water are really the play offorces that manifest themselves to us as earth and water -how, we can butpartially comprehend. Likewise the man who has his spiritual eyes openknows that the ultimate truth about earth and water lies in theapprehension of the eternal will which works in time and takes shape in theforces we realize under those aspects. This is not mere knowedge, asscience is, but it is a perception of the the soul by the soul. This doesnot lead us to power, as knowledge does, but it gives us joy, which is theproduct of kindred things. The man whose acquaintance with the world doesnot lead deeper than science leads him, will never understand what it isthat the man with the spiritual vision finds in these natural phenomena.The water does not merely cleanse his limbs, but it purifies his heart; forit touches his soul. The earth does not merely hold his body, but itgladdens his mind; for its contact is more than a physical contact, -it isa living prsesence."

When I first read these words over twenty yearsago, they took my breath away.I have read and re-read Sadhana many timesince then. Each reading or re-visting of favorite passages is as fresh asthe first.He says much more that is worth reading in this 164 pagegem.

Sadhana is also an excellent primer on classical Hinduism, as Tagorebeautifully quotes the Vedas and Upanishads with Sanskrit transliterationto convey the lovliness of the vocal cadences of that ancienttongue.

Sadhana ranks with Psalms, the Tao De Ching, the Dhammapada, ZenMind Begginers Mind and other enduring classics of world spiritualliterature for its directness, simplicity and beauty of expression. My copyis beginning to fall apart so I am delighted to find it is again inprint.

Finally, I thank Dr. Purshotam Lal of Calcutta for havingintroduced me to Tagore as Visiting Professor at Hofstra University in the1960's. Lal, a Tagore Scholar, also produced a lovely translation (or as hepreferred, a "transcreation") of the Dhammapada then published byFarrar Straus in New York. Thanks again, Lal.

Joel Freiser Hoboken, NewJersey ... Read more

Product Description
The poems of Rabindranath Tagore are among the most haunting and tender in Indian and world literature, expressing a profound and passionate human yearning. His ceaselessly inventive works deal with such subjects as the interplay between God and mortals, the eternal and the transient, and the paradox of an endlessly changing universe that is in tune with unchanging harmonies. Poems such as "Earth" and "In the Eyes of a Peacock" present a picture of natural processes unaffected by human concerns, while others, as in "Recovery—14," convey the poet’s bewilderment about his place in the world. And exuberant works such as "New Rain" and "Grandfather’s Holiday" describe Tagore’s sheer joy at the glories of nature or simply in watching a grandchild play. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Disappointing
Radice's translations do injustice to Tagore and books such as this one (along with Tagore's own inadequate transations of his work) might end up misleading Western critics. The strength of his poetry is in his command on language, the musicality of his verse and, in general, the formal perfection of his work. Although some of his later work was in free verse, Tagore was undoubtedly a formalist. He took the metrical and rhythmic patterns of classical Sanskrit poetry and also traditional narrative Bengali verse and either retained them or experimented with them by splitting whole units into shorter lines (consider, for example, Balaka) as dictated by needs of movement and development. One of the almost insurmountable difficulties of translating formal poetry is that meter (along with sonic devices) is inextricably linked to meaning and the translator, somehow, has to convey both.

This is where Radice fails miserably. Let me simply cite the opening two lines of his translation of "Golden Boat" (Shonar Tari) along with the original.
Translation:
Clouds rumbling in the sky; teeming rain.
I sit on the river bank, sad and alone.
Original:
gagane garaje megh ghana barasha
kule eka boshe achhi, nahi bharasha

In Bengali, unlike in English, it is the consonant count (note that joint consonants are counted as one) and not the syllable count that defines a given meter. Here, we have a truncated fourteen-beat meter with a caesura after the eigth beat. The "ga" sounds are onomatopoeic, after the roaring of the clouds. Subsequently, the use of softer consonants indicates a draining of tension and reflects the loss of hope on the part of the narrator. Radice's version lacks any discernible meter and most importantly, the cohesion of sound and sense. The only device he uses is a slant rhyme and this, by itself, falls short of conveying the music of Tagore's verse. Other weaknesses include the unhappy gerund and the prosaic modifiers.

Although the loss of formalism remains the primary failing of Radice's translations, there are other drawbacks. Reading Tagore aloud is always a pleasure because language in his hands is not only expression but can be read for sound alone. Those long polysyllabic compounds,the internal rhymes, the effortless alliteration are always a delight, no matter what the content, be it some his later abstruse works (of which I am not particularly fond) or his purely narrative poems. Radice's translations lack this linguistic richness and are bland for the most part. Worse, he has a penchant for cliches ("bright as a million suns", "sea of joy surges through his heart" etc.).One might as well ask, "What is the point?"

Submitted incognito, these poems would be rejected by even middling journals. I can only guess what impressions critics unfamiliar with Bengali might form of Tagore's work, particularly in relation to his contemporaries, Yeats, Pounds and Stevens. I would refer them to selected translations by Radice's wife, Ketaki Kushari Dyson. "I won't let you go" (Jete nahi dibo), in particular, is well rendered.

An Excellent Overview of Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), the outstanding Bengali poet, literateur and humanist (and Asia's first Nobel Laureate in 1913), is scarcely read outside his native Bengal because only a small fraction of his works havebeen translated from Bengali into English or indeed into other languages.English translations were those done by Tagore himself and by a few Bengaliliterary scholars well-versed in English. The arrival of Dr William Radiceon the scene of Bengali scholarship in the early eighties brought in acurrent of fresh air. Here was an Englishman admiring Tagore andtranslating him! In this book, Radice applies his deep perception of Tagorein putting together a bouquet, as it were, redolent with the exoticfragrance of Tagoreana. No single collection can ever do justice to Tagore,and this one doesn't either. However, it does give the English-knowingreader a vivid glimpse of Tagore's amazing creativity. Radice has done agood job of choosing competent translators who have applied their hearts tothe task -- Tagore is so subtle that it is enormously difficult totranslate him! This book is strongly recommended for readers of allnationalities. ... Read more

Product Description
This was first published in 1936 in keeping with Tagore's wish for an anthology. But the title of the original was really a misnomer as the works compiled were selected not collected. The poems and plays collected are translations from the Bengali. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

comment on Tagore's works
Taiwan edition is fromChina Commercial Center, Taipei. Tsgore received the nOBEL prize for literature for his magnificent wor. It was reoirted that Tagore met Einstein, No one knows how the conversation went. ... Read more

Product Description
Stray Birds
By Rabindranath Tagore

"Stray Birds are short poems, short aphorisms which embody Tagore's love of nature and love of simplicity. The power and beauty of these poems comes from their simplicity. For example the poem below is an example of how Tagore uses the splendour of the universe to inspire and soothe the human spirit."

About the Author:

"Rabindranath Tagore (7 May 1861 - 7 August 1941), also known by the sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali poet, Brahmo Samaj philosopher, visual artist, playwright, novelist, and composer whose works reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He became Asia's first Nobel laureate when he won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature. A Pirali Bengali Brahmin from Calcutta, Tagore first wrote poems at the age of eight. At the age of sixteen, he published his first substantial poetry under the pseudonym Bhanushingho ("Sun Lion") and wrote his first short stories and dramas in 1877. His home schooling, life in Shilaidaha, and travels made Tagore a nonconformist and pragmatist. Tagore strongly protested against the British Raj and gave his support to the Indian Independence Movement and Mahatma Gandhi. Tagore's life was tragic-he lost virtually his entire family and was devastated to witness Bengal's decline-but his life's work endured, in the form of his poetry and the institution he founded, Visva-Bharati University. Tagore wrote novels, short stories, songs, dance-dramas, and essays on political and personal topics. Gitanjali (Song Offerings), Gora (Fair-Faced), and Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World) are among his best-known works. His verse, short stories, and novels, which often exhibited rhythmic lyricism, colloquial language, meditative naturalism, and philosophical contemplation, received worldwide acclaim. Tagore was also a cultural reformer and polymath who modernised Bengali art by rejecting strictures binding it to classical Indian forms. Two songs from his rabindrasangeet canon are now the national anthems of Bangladesh and India: the Amar Shonar Bangla and the Jana Gana Mana." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Window to Tagore
STRAY BIRDS comprises three hundred twenty six short verses or aphorisms by Tagore, the Indian Poet Laureate, whose love of nature and simplicity as well as his regal command of poetic words is crystalized by this precious volume of poetry. Tagore won Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 with Gitanjali (Song Offerings) and this book, published in 1916, and translated by the poet into English himself offers new readers a quick window to peek into the greatness of the Tagore literary temple. Tagore spiritualizes nature into the experiences of human existence:

Find your beauty, my heart, from the world's movement,
like the boat that has the grace of the wind and the water (255)

The Stray Birds of summer that took flight from Tagore's window a century ago, have flown into my heart to sing and to stay.

Of all his English works, this is a must have
To those unfamiliar with Tagore, he was an Indian polymath who was the first Asian to ever win a Nobel Prize for Literature. His works are culturally and religiously driven, but contain the common sense and moral aptitude that you would expect from Aesop.
To those familiar with Tagore, I highly recommend this one. The prose is almost similar to simple quotes; each "poem" is no longer than 2 or 3 sentences. However, the imagery employed gives the reader a full sense of the wonders that he is describing. You can read the whole book in one sitting, or multiple sittings since there is no plot to follow. This makes it a great reader for avid or casual readers.

just like the music, picture, idea, how to love and live mix
good books always let you enjoy all your life. who do not want a beautiful around you? even sometimes the spirit of the book could make you defence the difficult situation of the life and refresh you when feel very tire and disappointed for what happened in your life. I just like it and will read it again and again to rich myself. thank you for reading my writing and hope this world become better and better with the help of good books, good poems like what Tagore did here. ... Read more

Product Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Product Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Product Description
"Sadhana: The Realisation of Life" is Rabindranath Tagore's excellent collection of essays on the subject of Indian spirituality. Tagore's objective in this work was to give the reader an understanding not only of the scripture but as to the practice, as he writes, "So in these papers, it may be hoped, western readers will have an opportunity of coming into touch with the ancient spirit of India as revealed in our sacred texts and manifested in the life of to-day." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The realisation of western-eastern body of thoughts
The English subtitle "The Realisation of Life" sounds rather ambitious. But it is true that following the advices of the author could bring yourselves to a kind of realizing what makes life more worthy to be lived and loved. But, alas! Life still will have an end! So what? The author would say: To substantiate the eternal! The author, about whom Albert Schweitzer said, he is one of the greatest thinkers of mankind, cannot conceal, that he is a Hindu- or better Brahman- thinker. He is convinced that India could give the world spirituality. Interestingly this is what all spiritually breathed Indians are thinking. India has to be the country where the world-spirit is at home! About this is Tagores writing, about the big Brahman, the big spender, whom to get to know in a spiritual union has to mean the greatest bliss at all.
The author grew up in a family, in which the texts of the Upanishads, the most worthy of all Brahmin texts, were used in daily ceremony. And he had the example of his father in front of his eyes, he who spent his long life in daily efforts to have union with the super-ego. Tagore wants with this book to make the ancient spirit of India available for the reader.
Tagore is in fact a great thinker who has many beautiful thoughts. Nevertheless he is closely linked to Hindu-spirituality. Likewise it is not astonishing when he emphasizes, that life giving words of experience originate in the hearts of people, those very hearts, which also generate evil words, thoughts and actions. In this context his assumption that a religion has to be judged by the momentary stage of development as well as it must have developed by the inward spirituality, virtually enriched by the experience of man, is better understood, but at the same time disproved.
Truths with eternal validity are independent of reasoning man and his lack of insight. But in Hinduism there is no tradition of logical thinking, there is spiritual thinking in which sometimes the wise men appear as elephants or monkeys. And what they have to say is "a" truth, not "the" truth, for these are no usual occurrences which induce the Indians to an enlightment. A life long Tagore scooped out of the verses of the Upanishads and the speeches of Buddha as he said himself. Also it is clearly visible that he uses Christian mindset. This is not unusual for Indian thinkers. Much of his book is from notes of lectures, which he held in Bengali in front of his students.
The texts contain much self-evident wisdom about man and world, which possibly was new to an Indian student in the first half of the 20th century so as for example in the first chapter about the relationship between the individual being and the universe.
Meanwhile we have established sciences dealing with ecological issues. Tagore is meaning the analogy in the realm of spirit. But he also should have realized that India, the "continent of spirituality", suffered centuries long slavery under foreign powers, famine, epidemics and poverty. Exactly his proclaimed visibility of spiritual development presents the Indian sub-continent in an unfavourable light! It is just the opposite!
Significantly Tagore equals his thinking with that of India. Herein he is wrong. He is overdrawing much in his idealism, for example when he stresses the wise handling of the Indians with their forests, which the colonizers of Northern America missed allegedly.
He seems to oversee that India deforested all its territory, except a few inaccessible stretches (already in the times of Tagore). The protection of nature and environment is not an invention of the Indians, rather of the West! He also oversees that in all times there were only a very few people in India who really retreated for contemplations from society to become an eremite or wise man. He instead entertains the legend, that the Indian man is more interested in spirituality than the western man. The momentary economic boom of India, the comprehensible run of an ever broader middle class for welfare, which is welfare of western brand, is showing, what always drives the people mostly.
At least he is admitting Jesus of Nazareth a flash of truth. Truth is for Tagore an Indian invention. And what is this truth? The world-soul and the individual soul are one, the individual soul must comprehend this and then she will draw the right conclusion and influence the surrounding positively. That is the old Brahmin teaching, enriched with ethical mindset which to a major part grew out of Christianity (Tagore is wise enough to understand that the old Brahmin teaching is not complete and needs somehow something which he found in the Christian teachings) and simple truths like as for example: our desires are responsible for limiting the reach of our self-awareness, for hindering the widening of our consciousness and for causing sin which keeps us far away from God and engender disharmony and arrogantpride.

Or, which is for a Hindu an astonishing knowledge: "sin is not simply an action, but a life-attitude, taking for certain that our goal is in the finite, that our Self is the last meaning!" Sometimes you believe to hear a missionary preaching. As such a one Tagore understands himself.
Love is not a topic in Brahmanism, neither in Hinduism outside the Bhakti-mythology it is more than to be defined as a Oneness with God. For Tagore instead love is a big deal. "Therefore I want to repeat that we do not see man correctly if we do not love him." A great sentence if we recognize that Hinduism is not about loving man. It is all about self-realization, self-redemption, the Self that dissolves in the whole.
Tagore is also prophetical when he says: "It is by progress of the natural sciencesthat the wholeness of the world and our Oneness with it becomes clearer for our spirit."
Tagore is a big friend of man. That is spoken out with many of his words. The evil in man seems not to exist really. He is speaking about love, joy, beauty, harmony. Good reading! But there is a lot which is not thoroughly contemplated and sometimes half-truths are more problematic than easily recognized untruths. So far Sadhana (with emphasis on the first a) is a work that should not be read without a critical mind. Typical for Hinduism is that the redemption, as promised by Tagore, is a nebulous becoming one with an impersonal world-soul; the dropping into an ocean of same like finally cleansed individual souls, in the end the extinction of any individual existence. Whereas Christians believe in a blissful continuation of life, the Hindus believe in a blissful extinction.
Somebody who wants to get accustomed to Indian thinking will find good impulses in this book. But then he has to know that Tagore is a thinker who syncretically absorbed all schools of thought that were available to him, to polish them with Indian mindset and pass it off as Indian thinking. A better start would be the reading of (the most important) Upanishads and a (shortened) version of the Baghavad Gita. Tagores teaching could be regarded as a preliminary end of a development, which should not be silent about the fact that exactly the thinking in India was very strongly fertilized by non-Indian ideas.
Tagore is worth reading. If you only want to read one book of him, read this one.

Lost Treasure Found
I found this book many years ago used in a bookstore in Philadelphia.There are few books in one's life that shapes a person's mind and soul, and this book, for me, was one of them.

Tagore's Sadhana is a must for anyone seeking to challenge him/herself.This is one book of essays (delivered as a series of lectures if I'm not mistaken) that will change your outlook on life.Like many great works, Sadhana crosses boundaries and for the discerning reader will illustrate that what is true for one culture is true for all.

I only wish that the presentation for this version was better since the font for this slim volume is quite small.The original version I bought cashed in at about 140 pages.This version is only 57 pages.

If you are interested in how Indian philosophy has influenced the world and how the east and west civilizations developed differently then this book is for you.It is also a very spiritual book.Read it and find out. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

the gardener
excellent collection of indian poetry.found it accidently while browsing in a huge 6 story library.quite a lucky find.

Visiting a flower garden in a magic ancient kingdom
"Please, make me the gardener of your flower garden", a lover asks his beloved. He calls himself a servant and his beloved the queen. He dreamsto serve her idle days. He wants to keep fresh the grassy path where she walks in the morning; he wants her feet to be greeted with praise at every step by the flowers.

And what he wants for his reward? He asks to be allowed to hold her little fists like tender lotus-buds and slip flower chains over her wrists; to tinge the soles of her feet with the red juice of flower petals and kiss away the speck of dust that may chance to linger there.

This is the way Rabindranath Tagore, the greatest Indian poet of all times, introduce us to this enchanted collection of poems, poems that touch the most profound strings of our hearts. His poems tell us about love and life - and they are rich with the description of nature and beauty. Anybody that loves or has loved cannot remain indifferent to his poems. Some readers "have smiles, sweet and simple, and some a sly twinkle in their eyes. Some have tears that well up in the daylight, and others tears that are hidden in the gloom." But we all have need for him, the poet, who is "ever as young or as old as the youngest and the oldest of the village".

His poems tell us of impossible love - like the love of the free bird and the cage bird: "Their love is intense with longing, but they never can fly wing to wing. Through the bars of the cage they look, and vain is their wish to know each other. They flutter their wings in yearning, and sing, 'Come closer, my love!' The free bird cries, 'It cannot be, I fear the closed doors of the cage.' The cage bird whispers, 'Alas, my wings are powerless and dead.' "

His poems tell us of secret love: "The young traveler came along the road in the rosy mist of the morning. He stopped before my door and asked me with an eager cry, 'Where is she?' For very shame I could not say, 'She is I, young traveler, she is I.' "

His poems tell us of lovers' emotion: "When my love comes and sits by my side, when my body trembles and my eyelids droop, the night darkens, the wind blows out the lamp, and the clouds draw veils over the stars. It is the jewel at my own breast that shines and gives light. I do not know how to hide it."

His poems tell us of the need for love confidence: "Do not keep to yourself the secret of your heart, my friend! Say it to me, only to me, in secret. You who smile so gently, softly whisper, my heart will hear it, not my ears."

His poems tell us of a love story: "Hands cling to hands and eyes linger on eyes: thus begins the record of our hearts. It is the moonlit night of March; the sweet smell of henna is in the air; my flute lies on the earth neglected and your garland of flowers is unfinished. This love between you and me is simple as a song."

His poems tell us of lovers departing: "An unbelieving smile flits on your eyes when I come to you to take my leave. I have done it so often that you think I will soon return. To tell you the truth I have the same doubt in my mind. For the spring days come again time after time; the full moon takes leave and comes on another visit, the flowers come again and blush upon their branches year after year, and it is likely that I take my leave only to come to you again. But keep the illusion awhile; do not send it away with ungentle haste.When I say I leave you for all time, accept it as true, and let a mist of tears for one moment deepen the dark rim of your eyes. Then smile as archly as you like when I come again."

Reading those poems I felt like visiting a flower garden full of scents and beauty in a magic ancient kingdom. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more

Product Description
A HARD-TO-FIND PAPERBACK COLLECTION OF PROSE TRANSLATIONS MADE BY RABINDRANATH TAGORE FROM THE ORIGINAL BENGALI SONG OFFERINGS! WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY W. B. YEATS! 1973 PAPERBACK 2ND PRINTING (#08963) OF THE 1971 FIRST MACMILLAN PAPERBACKS EDITION! PRINTED IN USA. 103 SONGS. 123 PAGES. ... Read more

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

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The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Gardening / General; Gardening / Vegetables; History / General; History / Asia / India ... Read more