__NOTOC__ ''Gitanjali'' ( bn, গীতাঞ্জলি, lit='Song offering') is a collection of

poems Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...

by the

Bengali poet Bengali poetry is a rich tradition of poetry in the Bengali language and has many different forms. Originating in the Bengal region of South Asia, the history of Bengali poetry underwent three successive stages of development: poetry of the ear ...

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

. Tagore received the

Nobel Prize for Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...

, for the English translation, Gitanjali:''

Song Offerings ''Song Offerings'' ( bn, গীতাঞ্জলি) is a volume of lyrics by Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, rendered into English by the poet himself, for which he was awarded the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature. Contents ''Song Offerin ...

'', making him the first non-European to receive this honor. It is part of the

UNESCO Collection of Representative Works The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

. Its central theme is devotion, and its motto is "I am here to sing thee songs" (No. XV).

History

The original

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

collection of 156/157 poems was published on August 14, 1910. The poems were based on medieval Indian lyrics of devotion with a common theme of love across most poems. Some poems also narrated a conflict between the desire for materialistic possessions and spiritual longing.

Reworking in other languages

The English version of ''Gitanjali'' or ''Song Offerings/Singing Angel'' is a collection of 103 English

prose poem Prose poetry is poetry written in prose form instead of verse form, while preserving poetic qualities such as heightened imagery, parataxis, and emotional effects. Characteristics Prose poetry is written as prose, without the line breaks associ ...

s, which are Tagore's own English translations of his Bengali poems, and was first published in November 1912 by the India Society in London. It contained translations of 53 poems from the original Bengali ''Gitanjali'', as well as 50 other poems from his other works. The translations were often radical, leaving out or altering large chunks of the poem and in one instance fusing two separate poems (song 95, which unifies songs 89 and 90 of ''Naivedya''). The English ''Gitanjali'' became popular in the West, and was widely translated.

References

External links

* * *
Gitanjali website
{{Rabindranath Tagore , state=uncollapsed Poetry collections by Rabindranath Tagore 1910 poetry books Bengali-language poems Bengali poetry collections