Gitanjali, Song Offerings - Rabindranath Tagore

Gitanjali, Song Offerings - Rabindranath Tagore


I would describe the book as a sacred legacy! The collection of the 103 golden poems is just amazing. It conveys the illusion of poetry with simple everyday occurrences. 
The set of the original Bengali poems cast the same spell when translated into English. The book and the author were both worth the Nobel Prize they have been conferred with, I can guarantee...!
Sometimes you feel like the poet is addressing the god, some other times you think it could be the loved one to whom those lines are dedicated. Or maybe it is some old and experienced soul imparting the deep wisdom to a younger generation like us. 
Let me quote a few lines which caught my attention, along with their chapter numbers:
1. "The time has not come true, the words have not been rightly set; only there is the agony of wishing in my heart." (13th)
2. "I keep gazing on the far-away gloom of the sky, and my heart wanders wailing with the restless wind." (18th)
3. "What emptiness do you gaze upon! Do you not feel a thrill passing through the air with the notes of the faraway song floating from the other shore?" (21st)
4. "If I call not thee in my prayers, if I keep not thee in my heart, thy love for me still waits for my love." (32nd)
5. "It is as if the time were come to wind up my work, and I feel in the air a faint smell of thy sweet presence." (46th)
6. "I can find no place where to hide it. I am ashamed to wear it, frail as I am, and it hurts me when I press it to my bosom. Yet shall I bear in my heart this honour of the burden of pain, this gift of thine." (52nd)
7. "Ask not what I have with me to take there. I start on my journey with empty hands and expectant heart." (94th)
8. "Let a rain-cloud of July hung low with its burden of unshed showers key all my mound bend down at thy door in one salutation to thee." (103rd)
Overall, a must-read if you want to experience true and magical poetry...!!
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Read for life...!

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