GITANJALI – Song Offerings || Rabindranath Tagore

No book of poems has ever been able to create such a euphoric response in the West as a series of 103 poems did 95 years ago. Again, never has any work of translation received such paradoxical feedbacks ranging from exuberant ecstasy to indelible indifference like this one.
The history of Indian English Literature is both indebted to and uncomfortable about the book which talks about a union with the supreme in such a metaphysical language that multiple layers of meaning emerge leading to the multivoicedness of critical response.
This edition is meant to be a companion to Gitanjali : Song Offerings zooming in on some specific areas that include the history of the book’s reception in the West, the merits of its translation and its re-evaluation from different perspectives.