Gitanjali

Gitanjali (Bangla Gitanjoli) is a collection of 103 English poems, largely translations, by the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore. This volume became very famous in the West, and was widely translated.

Gitanjali (গীতাঞ্জলি Gitanjoli) is also the title of an earlier Bengali volume (1910) of mostly devotional songs. The word gitanjoli is a composed from "git", song, and "anjoli", offering, and thus means - "An offering of songs"; but the word for offering, anjoli, has a strong devotional connotation, so the title may also be interpreted as "prayer offering of song".

The English collection is not a translation of poems from the Bengali volume of the same name. While half the poems (52 out of 103) in the English text were selected from the Bengali volume, others were taken from these works (given with year and number of songs selected for the English text): Gitimallo (1914,17), Noibeddo (1901,15), Khea (1906,11) and a handful from other works. The translations were often radical, leaving out or altering large chunks of the poem and in one instance even fusing two separate poems (song 95, which unifies songs 89,90 of naivedya).

The translations were undertaken prior to a visit to England in 1912, where the poems were extremely well received. A slender volume was published in 1913 with an exhilarating preface by WB Yeats, and in the same year, based on a corpus of three thin translations, Rabindranath became the first non-European to win the Nobel prize for literature.

Poetry

The poems of Gitanjali have a largely metaphysical outlook, and much of the poetry talks about a union with the supreme, but the union also has in it much of the discourse of two earthly lovers. This type of anthropomorphic depiction of celestial love is quite common in the Vaishnava literature of India since the 12th c. (see Vidyapati or Jayadeva). Rabindranath encountered it also in his interactions with the Baul community in rural Bengal. For example, poem 7 in the English volume renders poem 127 from the Bengali gItanjali, Amar e gan chheŗechhe tar shôkol ôlongkar and talks of heavenly love in terms of the lover taking off her jewelry, which is getting in the way of the union. See also the poem 18, at the bottom of this page.

Some poems have to do with themes related to nature, but here too a spiritual theme is subtly present, as in this poem (no. 57), given here along with the Bangla text in Roman script:

Light, my light, the world-filling light, the eye-kissing light, heart-sweetening light!
Ah, the light dances, my darling, at the centre of my life; the light strikes, my darling, the chords of my love; the sky opens, the wind runs wild, laughter passes over the earth.
The butterflies spread their sails on the sea of light. Lilies and jasmines surge up on the crest of the waves of light.
The light is shattered into gold on every cloud, my darling, and it scatters gems in profusion.
Mirth spreads from leaf to leaf, my darling, and gladness without measure. The heaven's river has drowned its banks and the flood of joy is abroad.

আলো আমার আলো ওগো, আলো ভূবন ভরা
আলো নয়ন ধোওয়া আমার আলো হৃদয় হরা ।
নাচে আলো নাচে ও ভাই, আমার প্রাণের কাছে -
বাজে আলো বাজে ও ভাই, হৃদয়বীণার মাঝে
জাগে আকাশ, ছোটে বাতাস, হাসে সকল ধরা ।
আলোর স্রোতে পাল তুলেছে হাজার প্রজাপতি
আলোর ঢেউয়ে উঠল মেতে মল্লিকা মালতী ।
মেঘে মেঘে সোনা, ও ভাই যায়না মানিক গোনা -
পাতায় পাতায় হাসি ও ভাই, পুলক রাশি রাশি ।
সুরনদীর কূল ডুবেছে সুধা-নিঝর-ঝরা।
      - অচলায়তন
       Alo amar, alo ogo, alo bhubôn bhôra

alo nôeon dhôoa amar, alo hridôe hara.
Nache alo nache, o bhai, amar praner kachhe --
baje alo baje, o bhai, hridôe binar majhe --
jage akash, chhoţe batash, hashe shôkol dhôra.
Alor srote pal tulechhe hajar projapoti.
Alor đheue uţhlo mete mollika maloti.
Meghe meghe shona, o bhai, jae na manik gona --
patae patae hashi, o bhai, pulôk rashi rashi.
Shuronodir kul bhorechhe shudha-nijhôr-jhôra.
      -Ôcholaeotôn

Translations

There has been much debate over the quality of the translations. Initially there was speculation in Europe that perhaps the text was substantially edited by English well-wishers such as Yeats, especially since it was felt that Tagore at that point did not have a sufficient command of English. However manuscript evidence does not support this, and it is now felt that Tagore was widely read in English, and was sufficiently competent at this level.

However, on the whole, for the native Bangla speaker, the translations leave much to be desired. This is especially true of today's reader. Consider for example, poem xviii in the English text, which is poem 16 of the Bengali volume: megher pare megh jamechhe.

Tagore's translation runs:

Clouds heap upon clouds and it darkens. Ah, love, why dost thou let me wait outside at the door all alone?
In the busy moments of the noontide work I am with the crowd, but on this dark lonely day it is only for thee that I hope.
If thou showest me not thy face, if thou leavest me wholly aside, I know not how I am to pass these long, rainy hours.
I keep gazing on the far-away gloom of the sky, and my heart wanders wailing with the restless wind.

A more modern rendering, which is also more faithful to the original, may go:

The clouds are stacked up high, the light fades
O why have you kept me by the door, waiting so!
In the bustle of workday one keeps busy
But now at dusk - I await merely your sign,
       And yet the clouds roll up high.
If you will never come, if you will ignore me
How can I bear these days of endless rain.
My gaze lifted afar, I listen eagerly
My soul rushing restless in the gusting winds,
       O the clouds keep stacking up so high.
              (tr. Kadambari Sen)

Whichever translation one likes, however, in the end all translation is doomed.

Even though the English words carry some meaning, the mellifluous Bengali rhythm, and the sonorous nature of the original, with the heavy sounds of "gh", "j", "dh" etc. are lost. Also, this particular poem is actually a song set to the raintime raga Malhar, and the powerful emotions that it evokes in music, mere words can never emulate.

Particularly notable is the evocation of love in this poem; viewed purely as love poetry, it is exquisite, but one may also view it as a celestial love.

Also, the Indian rains with its dark skies and unmitigated energy, are often associated with various shades of love, particularly the separation stage ("Viraha"). This is a very old association in the Indian literary tradition, going back at least to Kalidasa.

Legacy

The spiritual content of this work seems to have lost its force in an increasingly materialistic world, Dante is still read today, and perhaps the English Gitanjali will continue being read.

But for millions of Bangla speakers, the immortal poetry of the Bengali originals continue to resonate in the soul, and one can merely ask, in the poet's own voice: "tumi keman kare gAn karo he guNI" :

I stand mesmerized,
wondering how you sing
your notes hold the world spellbound -
the light of your music
lights up my universe.
(song 22 of Bengali Gitanjali, song 3 in the English.)

External links

The complete text of the English Gitanjali is available as part of the Gutenberg Project.

[1] Eldritch Press version, with

illustrations.

Gitanjali, University of Virginia