Biswa Kabi Rabindranath Tagore on His 150th Birthday, A Tribute

TOMARE PRONAAM!
A tribute to Biswa Kabi Rabindranath Tagore on his 150th Birthday. This is, as per Bengali calender, the 25th BAISAKH, 1417, the birthday of the famous poet and philosopher.

Gitanjali (Song Offerings), a collection of 103 poems by the great poet. Gitanjali (গীতাঞ্জলি) is Tagore's best-known collection, winning him his Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913.

On Gitanjali:

We write long books where no page perhaps has any quality to make writing a pleasure, being confident in some general design, just as we fight and make money and fill our heads with politics---all dull things in the doing---while Mr. Tagore, like the Indian civilization itself, has been content to discover the soul and surrender himself to its spontaneity.


W.B. YEATS September 1912
Irish poet, dramatist and prose writer, one of the greatest English-language poets of the 20th century. Yeats received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.

Excerpts from Gitanjali:

......................................

O Fool, try to carry thyself upon thy own shoulders!
O beggar, to come beg at thy own door!
Leave all thy burdens on his hands who can bear all, and never look behind in regret.
.......................................


.......................................
I had gone a-begging from door to door in the village path, when thy golden chariot appeared in the distance like a gorgeous dream and I wondered who was this King of all kings!
My hopes rose high and methought my evil days were at an end, and I stood waiting for alms to be given unasked and for wealth scattered on all sides in the dust.
The chariot stopped where I stood. Thy glance fell on me and thou camest down with a smile. I felt that the luck of my life had come at last. Then of a sudden thou didst hold out thy right hand and say `What hast thou to give to me?'
Ah, what a kingly jest was it to open thy palm to a beggar to beg! I was confused and stood undecided, and then from my wallet I slowly took out the least little grain of corn and gave it to thee.
But how great my surprise when at the day's end I emptied my bag on the floor to find a least little gram of gold among the poor heap. I bitterly wept and wished that I had had the heart to give thee my all.
.......................................

......................................


I dive down into the depth of the ocean of forms, hoping to gain the perfect pearl of the formless.
No more sailing from harbour to harbour with this my weather-beaten boat. The days are long passed when my sport was to be tossed on waves.
And now I am eager to die into the deathless....
......................................

Complete translation of Gitanjali.

Manuscript of the Poet in Bengali.
Acknowledgement: CalCuttaWeb.com

"Dancing Girl" - a painting by Rabindranath Tagore. He would often tell his paintings were meant for the Western World.

Rabindranath, on Western World:

And "It hurts me deeply when the cry of rejection rings loud against the West in my country with the clamour that the Western education can only injure us."



Seser Kobita
A novel by Rabindranath Tagore, widely considered a landmark in Bengali literature. The novel was serialised in 1928, from Bhadro to Choitro in the magazine Probashi, and was published in book form the following year. It has been translated into English as The Last Poem (translator Anandita Mukhopadhyay) and Farewell song (translator Radha Chakravarty).

An excerpts:



A memorable scene from Satyajit Ray's "Charulata" which is an adaption of "Nastanirh" by Rabindranath Tagore. In this scene the main character, Charu, sings Tagore's song, "Fule Fule Dhole Dhole."



Rabindra Sangeet
Songs of the famous poet, the lyrics will touch your heart, and tears may roll down in silence, in joys, in sadness and in fulfillment! The songs are spiritually enriched extending to the horizon of the universal divinity.
















This is our humble persona to pay a tribute to Biswa Kabi.
While creating this page, I know not why, tears of inexplainable origin dripped all through all along. I believe that's my real tribute, which you could never see.