Gitanjali – Rabindranath Tagore

Gitanjali, the most famous work by Rabindranath Tagore, was first published in India in 1910. Tagore modeled these poems about love, devotion, desire, and the realization of the divine within on medieval Indian lyrics of devotion. In 1912, Tagore traveled to England with his English translation of Gitanjali, and shared it with English painter William Rothenstein who had visited India. Rothenstein championed the collection and shared it with others. For its publication by the India Society in London Rothenstein provided the frontispiece and W. B. Yeats wrote the introduction. Immediately upon its publication the book earned attention and high praise Ezra Pound, Robert Bridges, Ernest Rhys, Thomas Sturge Moore, and others. Largely for his English translation of Gitanjali, in 1913 Tagore won the Nobel Prize for Literature—the first such recognition of an Eastern writer. Gitanjali is part of the UNESCO Collection of Representative Works and a beloved classic the world over.

Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) was an Indian poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter who reshaped Bengali literature and music as well as Indian art. In 1913 he became the first non-European and the first lyricist to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. His rejection of rigid classical forms and linguistic strictures enabled him to compose works known for their lyricism, colloquialism, naturalism, and optimism.

“Profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful.” —The Nobel Foundation