Author: Rabindranath Tagore
Publisher: UBS Publishers
Year: 2003
Language: multilingual
Pages: 304
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8174764275
Description
The first-ever winner of the Nobel Prize by any non-white, this uniquely packaged volume of poem-songs, endorsed by Visva Bharati University, also carries the original handwritten Bengali versions of Gurudev's verses alongside the English translations.
Loaded with over 103 verses translated from his 157 poems in Bengali by the great mind himself, this edition , besides the poems, features the original introduction by celebrated Irish poet W B Yeats, a montage of newspaper clippings reporting the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature to a 'Hindoo', Tagore's prize acceptance speech, excerpts from introduction to Gitanjali translated in several languages, the English translation of the introduction to the French edition by Andre Gide, photographs of the medal and citation of the Nobel Prize awarded to the poets besides setting the English translations against the backcloth of snapshots that attempts to bring readers closer to the character of the place that was the cradle to the creative mind.
Even though the English translation of Gitanjali bears the same name as the original Bengali edition, the poems featured in the two editions are neither identical nor the same in number. The original Bengali edition had 157 poems as against the 103 prose pieces in the English edition. These 103 verses are again translations of 104 poems in Bengali. This is because one English verse (verse 103) is a combined translation of two Bengali poems.
On the left hand pages are featured the manuscripts of the original Bengali poems. The English translations done by the poet himself appear on the right hand pages. Wherever the original Bengali manuscript is not available the Bengali version of the poem has been reproduced.
This edition features
Introduction to Gitanjali by W B Yeats.
The English translation of the Introduction to the French edition of Gitanjali by Andre Gide.
Photographs of the medal and citation of the Nobel Prize awarded to Rabindranath Tagore.
A selection of Newspaper clippings reporting the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature to Tagore.
Rabindranath Tagore’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech.
Excerpts from introductions to Gitanjali translated in several languages will give readers a taste of the impact of the work across the world.
The English translations have been set against a backdrop of photographs that will bring readers closer to the ambience of the place that was the cradle to this creative mind.
REVIEW
One feels about them (the poems ) that they are the thoughts that come to our minds in moments of deep feeling, to some of us quite often to others rarely, written down for us in the simplest way. And so they delight me: for everywhere I am glad to find my confused thoughts and feelings expressed so clearly and so beautifully that I have sometimes laughed for joy, sometimes felt tears come. There is certainly a music in some of the poems but most of that I suppose is lost in translation. As to style, beauty of language, craft of any kind I am not bothered by it. I would read Gitanjali as I would read the Bible for comfort and for strength.
-Paul Nash
Contents
Message from Prime Minister
Preface
Gitanjali
Note Introducing Archival Material
Introduction by W B Yeats
Andre Gide’s Introduction to his French Translation of Gitanjali
Excerpts from Ivo Storniolo’s Prologue to his Portuguese Translation of Gitanjali
Excerpt from Suko Watanabe’s Prologue to his Japanese Translation of Gitanjai
Germany’s Reaction to Gitanjali
Germany’s Reaction to Gitanjali
The Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
Acknowledgements