Gitanjali

 

Gitanjali

By Rabindranath Tagore

Gitanjali was first published by India Society London on 1 November in 1912. The next edition published by Macmillan and Company, London in march 1913,  was  reprinted ten times before the award of the Nobel Prize on 13 November, 1913.

‘Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali has held a special pride of place in the hearts of not only of all Indians.  This slim volume of song -offerings catapulted India on to the literary map of the world. The literary world has since seen this book in innumerable editions- it has been translated into almost all Indian languages, into nearly all major languages of the world; there is also an edition in Braille.’

This quote is from the preface of the edition of Visva-bharati  2003 which I found when I rearranged my books in the shelf during the power cut two days before due to the heavy storms in our city. I have started to read the book and fascinateed by the songs in it. I invite you all to read this masterpiece.  

 

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;

Where knowledge is free;

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments

By narrow domestic walls;

Where words come out from the depth of truth;

Where tireless striving stretches its arms

Towards perfection;

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is lead forward by thee into ever-widening

Thought and action-

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father,

Let my country awake.

Pg.75 Song 35