The English Writings of Rabindranath Tagore (Volume One)

Although Rabindranath Tagore's reputation as a writer outside the Bengali speaking world rests almost entirely on English translations, no attempt has been made yet to make his English works available to the interested readers. Sahitya Akademi, therefore, thought it extremely important to bring out a definitive edition of Tagore's works in English to project one of the greatest writers of our times, as a writer in English also.

The corpus of Tagore's writings in English is fairly large and diverse. He translated a large part of his Bengali poems and a few plays into English. He also translated a few part poems of his contemporaries, and religious lyrics of medieval saints written both in Bengali and in Hindi. In addition to these translations, his original writings in English, mostly essays, form a substantial part of his total work. The present scheme is to make all his writings in English available in several volumes.

The first volume includes all books of the poems of Tagore published so far. The second volume will have the plays translated by Tagore and also the books of essays published during his lifetime. The third, and probably the last, volume will contain all other writings of Tagore, scattered in different journals and yet to be collected, and also those lecture and addresses not included in the first two volumes.

It is necessary to point out that the present scheme is to bring out the English writings of Tagore and not translations of Tagore by anyone else. Therefore, several translations of Tagore's works, some with his approval, published by Macmillan, will not be included here. This is not a reflection on the merit of these works: they have a role in the history of Tagore's reception. We are guided by the compulsion of the scheme which aims to collect Tagore's own English writings.

The woks included in the first volume have been presented in four sections. The first section has all the major poetical works of Tagore, arranged in chronological order. Two interesting works of Tagore, Stray Birds and Fireflies, have been arranged in a separate section not only for their structural similarity but more for their linguistic character, as they contain both translations and original writings, and one is not always certain about their real identity. The third section comprises a poem, The Child, it being the only major poem of Tagore written directly in English and published as a separate book. The last section Tagore's translation of the poems of Kabir. The four sections, therefore, represent four different categories of Tagore's poems and translations. The appendices contain The Fugitive and Lekhan (1926), a bilingual work.

The Akademi is grateful to Professor Sisir Kumar Das for preparing this edition of the English writings of Rabindranath Tagore and also for his excellent introduction and annotations.

About the Book

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) become an international figure when his Gitanjali, an anthology of religious lyrics, originally written in Bengali and translated into English by the poet himself, was warded the Nobel Prize for literature- the first ever to an Asian-in 1913. since then he came to be known not only as a great writer but also as the most able spokesman of modern India. Till today he is the most widely read Indian writer in India and abroad. Although his reputation outside the Bengali-speaking area rests largely if not entirely, on his English writings no attempt has been ever made to put them together. Sahitya Akademi has decided to bring out a complete collection of Tagore's writings in English in three volumes. The corpus of Tagore's English writings is fairly large and diverse. In addition to translations of his own works, his original writings in English, mostly essays, also form a substantial part of his total works. The present volume includes all poetic works translated by Tagore including The Child, the only major poem he wrote in English. These works, distinguished by profundity of thought and beauty of expression, made a great impact on readers belonging to different countries and cultures. Their appeal is still fresh and abiding. For the first time The English Writings of Rabindranath Tagore are presented with detailed annotations and information about the historical context to which they belong.

About the Author

Sisir Kumar Das is the Tagore Professor at the University of Delhi where he teaches Bengali and Comparative Literature. He received the Nehru Prize of the Federal Republic of Germany for his monograph Western Sailors: Eastern Seas (1969), an essay on the German response to Indian culture, and the Tagore Memorial Prize of the West Bengal Government twice for his works The Shadow of the Cross-Hinduism and Christianity in a Colonial Situation (1974) and The Artist in Chains, The Life of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (1984). A poet, playwright and critic, he has also translated Aristotle's Poetics and several Greek plays into Bengali. His Bengali publications include Gadya Padyer Dwanda (Essays, 1984), Hayto Daroja Ache (verse, 1986), Abalupta Chaturtha Charan (verse, 1986), Socrates-er Jabanbandi (play, 1989) and Bajpakhir Sange Kichuksan (verse, 1992). He is the author of a A History of Indian Literature (1800-1910): Western Impact : Indian Response, published by the Sahitya Akademi.

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