__NOTOC__ ''Gitanjali'' () is a collection of

poems Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

by the Bengali poet

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renai ...

. Tagore received the

Nobel Prize for Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in t ...

in 1913, for its English translation, '' Song Offerings'', making him the first non-European and the first Asian and the only Indian to receive this honour. It is part of the

UNESCO Collection of Representative Works The UNESCO Collection of Representative Works (or UNESCO Catalogue of Representative Works) was a UNESCO translation project that was active for about 57 years, from 1948 to about 2005. The project's purpose was to translate masterpieces of world ...

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

History

The collection by Tagore, originally written in Bengali, comprises 157 poems, many of which have been turned into songs or Rabindrasangeet. The original Bengali collection was published on 4 August 1910. The translated version Gitanjali: Song Offerings was published in November 1912 by the India Society of London which contained translations of 53 poems from the original Gitanjali, as well as 50 other poems extracted from Tagore’s Achalayatana, Gitimalya, Naivadya, Kheya, and more. Overall, Gitanjali: Song Offerings consists of 103 prose poems of Tagore’s own English translations. 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 otherwise deferring to poetic devices to make meaning. Characteristics Prose poetry is written as prose, without the line breaks associated with poetry. However, it make ...

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

* * * {{cite web , url=https://www.brainwareuniversity.ac.in/celebrating-tagore/when-worlds-collide-tagore-yeats-and-the-phenomenon-of-gitanjali/ , title=When Worlds Collide: Tagore, Yeats, and the Phenomenon of Gitanjali , date=27 August 2023 Poetry collections by Rabindranath Tagore 1910 poetry books Poems in Bengali Bengali poetry collections Bengali-language books