MkR

• The English Writings of Rabindranath Tagore

General Preface:

Tagore's English writings -originals and translations – have not received the attention that they deserve. The writings have recently been collected by Sahitya Akademi in three volumes with a brilliant critical introduction by late Professor Sisir kumar Das, an eminent Tagore scholar. It is presumptuous to try to improve upon it. The purpose of this edition is, however, different.: to make the English writings of Tagore available to the widest possible range of readers interested in the writings of Tagore all over the world with just the bare, minimum information necessary for appreciating the writings, and leave the critical assessment to the readers themselves.

There may be two possible reasons for the neglect of Tagore's English writings. First is Tagore's prolific output, Shakespearean felicity and protean plasticity as a Bengali poet, who though well-versed in English, chose to write in the medium of his mother tongue., and there is hardly any literary form that he did not touch upon and turn into gold His creative genius found expression in poems, plays, novels, essays, short stories, satirical pieces, text books for children, and songs of all kinds. The only literary form that he did not try is epic. But in his long, eventful and creative eighty years of life he virtually ‘lived' an epic.

Tagore was both a nationalist and an internationalist, a man of action and contemplation, a pioneer in cooperative farming and a writer of profound philosophical essays. As a writer he always kept his antennae out and registered every intellectual movement that was taking place in the West and yet always remaining deeply embedded in Upanishadic thoughts. Profoundly oriented in Indian classical thoughts, he was equally a modernist in his sensibility. He was a man who touched the kindred points of heaven and earth, and harmonized in himself the best of the East and the West. It is largely due to his mighty stature as a Bengali poet who practically wrote only in Bengali for nearly the first fifty years of his life, that nobody really bothered about his English writings and his own translations of his own writings.

The second possible reason is the supposedly ‘poor' quality of his translations susequent to the translation of Gitanjali . Incidentally, while requesting Andre Gide to translate Tagore's Gitanjali St John Perse wrote: “The English translation of Tagore's which he himself made … is the only really poetic English language work to have appeared in a long time.” After Tagore received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913 there was a growing demand for his writings in the West, and as Tagore was not apparently satisfied by the translations others- mainly his admirers- made he began tp translate his writings himself. But the tremendous hurry if not ‘the wicked speed' with which he began to translate, seriously affected the quality of the translations. Many scholars feel that one reason of the waning reputation of Tagore in the West is the poor quality of his translations. But there are others who feel that the translations- particularly the translations of his poems are not as bad as they are said to be. On the contrary , they argue, in keeping with Tagore's own view that translation of a poem is essentially a reincarnation, the soul of the source language poem assuming a new body in the target language poem. It is worth recalling in this connection what Tagore said in an interview given to Portland Press in Washington on 23 October 1916 :

My English translations are not the same. Each country has its symbols of expression. So when I translate my work I find new images and presently new thought and finally it is something almost entirely new, The fundamental idea is the same but the vision changes. A poem cannot be translated, it can only be relived in a different atmosphere.

And again, in an interview given to Evening Post in New York on 9 December 1916 he reiterated :

The English versions of my poems are not literal translations. When poems are changed from one language into another, they acquire a new quality and a new spirit, the ideas get new birth and are reincarnated.

Even earlier , on 13 March 1913 Tagore had written to Ajit Kumar Chakrabarti: ‘What I try to capture in my English translation is the heart and core of my original Bengali . That is bound to make for a fairly wide deviation. If I were not there to help you out, you might probably find it impossible to identify the original in the translation.” And in another letter written two months later on 12 May 1913 he admits that “the forms and features of the original become difficult in my translations – the way I do them these days. My translations are more a reflection than an exact replica of the original image”.

Rilke had a similar experience. In a letter to Lou Andreas-Salome Rilke mused: “ einige Mal nahm ich sogar das gleiche Thema franzosisch und deutsch vor, das sich dann, von jeder Sprache aus, zu meiner Uberraschung, anders entwickelte: was sehr gegen die Naturlihkeit des Ubersetzen sprache” ( “… a few times I even set myself the same theme in French and in German, which then, to my surprise, developed differently from each language: which would speak very strongly against the naturalness of translation.”

Come what may, the point is whether Tagore's English translations are good or bad, whether the translation furthered his reputation or damaged it, is immaterial The fact of the matter is that they are his, and his own translation of whatever quality it may be is more valuable to a Tagore lover than the best translation made by somebody else, as Van Gogh's one original single scratch is more valuable than the best possible copy by some other artist.

The value of Tagore's English writings lies here : they constitute an important part of his total oeuvre, add a new magnificent dimension to it and offer us a glimpse into the mystique of the creative anxiety that could have haunted even this greatest writer of the twentieth century, -- about his possible reception in an alien culture.

# # #

My special thanks go to my colleague Professor Rama Kundu for valuable assistance in readying the volume.

I am grateful to Dr K.R.Gupta, Chairman, Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, New Delhi , for the confidence evinced in me and for seeing the book through the press.

Preface to

The English Writings of Rabindranath Tagore

• Volumes 1-2

The Bengali Gitanjali was published in 1910. But the English version which was published from London in 1912 contains 103 poems out of which 53 are from the original Bengali work and others are gleaned from Caitali (1896 ? ), Kalpana (1900), Sisu (1903), Kheya (1906), Acalayatan (1912), Utsarga (1914) and Gitimalya (1914). The poems are arranged neither thematically, nor chronologically, nor in terms of mood, so that each poem may be regarded as an independent, complete-in-itself lyric. The broad framework is that of medieval mystic poetry where the devotee longs for a union with God but believes that God also equally longs for a union with man and for a reciprocal relationship for a meaningful existence.

The book was warmly received by the West and no less a poet than W.B.Yeats wrote an introduction to it, and was instrumental in introducing Tagore to the Western readers that finally led to the award of the Nobel Prize for literature to Tagore. When Macmillan later published the book (the book was originally published by the India Society, London ) in 1913 they made slight changes at the instance of C.F.Andrews.

The Gardener was published by Macmillan in 1913. The book contains prose translations of 85 Bengali poems originally written during the period from 1890 to 1900. It is an assortment of different kinds of poems and songs. The book received mixed response. While May Sinclair admired it as a ‘wonderful book of modern secular love-poems', Ezra Pound did not like it.

The Crescent Moon was published by Macmillan in 1913 and contained eight illustrations in colour by three distinguished artists of the Bengal School of Painting: Surendranath Ganguli, Abanindranath Tagore and Nandalal Bose. Of the 40 poems that the book contains 35 are translations from Sisu (The Child) and others are from Kadi O Komal (1886), Sonar Tari (1894), and Ksanika (1900) and Gitimalya (1914), including three poems from Gitanjali with slight variations. All the poems have titles and the general theme is the child. The book received mixed response. The Times Literary Supplement found the poems ‘more childish than childlike', but many found the poems deeply moving and comparable with the poems of William Blake.

Fruit-Gathering was first published by Macmillan in 1916 and was later published in 1918 along with Gitanjali under the title Gitanjali and Fruit-Gathering . The book contains 86 poems out of which more than 50 are from Gitimalya , Gitali, Utsarga, Kheya, Naivedya and Gitanjali and the rest are from Katha and Balaka . The poems are of different kinds. While the poems from Gitimalya , etc., are religious in temper, the poems from Katha are like ballads on the courage and sacrifice of men of Indian history and the poems from Balaka evince the bursting vitality of a soaring imagination.

Lover's Gift and Crossing was first published by Macmillan in 1918. Lover's gift consists of 60 poems and Crossing consists of 74 poems. There are 4 poems (Nos 21, 41, 50, 53) in Lover's Gift which are not Tagore's , but translations from three other Bengali poets: Debendranath Sen, Satyendranath Dutta, and Dwijendralal Roy.

The Fugitive was first published by Macmillan New York in 1921, in addition to the English translations of his own Bengali poems. The volume includes translations of 17 religious lyrics composed by others. The volume also includes 5 dramatic poems and 4 poems from Kahini. The poems included in the volume are gleaned from different Bengali works of Tagore ranging between 1893 and 1922.

Collected Poems and Plays of Rabindranath Tagore was published by Macmillan in 1936, and has since gone into many reprints. It contains Gitanjali, The Crescent Moon, The Gardener, Chitra, Fruit-gathering, The Post-Office, Lover's Gift, Crossing, Stray Birds, The Cycle of Spring, The Fugitive and Other Poems, Sacrifice and Other Plays. However, one should bear in mind that the word ‘Collected' in the title is erroneous, and therefore misleading, because it does not include all the English writings of Tagore. Furthermore one should also note – there is no editorial comment in this respect whatsoever – that all the translations are not by Tagore. It was Debabrata Mukhopadhyay who translated Dakghar into Post Office and it was C.F.Andrews and Nishikanta Sen who translated The Cycle of Spring . There are some changes also in many of the poems incorporated into the volume from earlier works.

Poems was published by Visva-Bharati in 1942. Krishna Kripalani, in collaboration with Amiya Chakrabarti, Nirmal Chandra Chattopadhyay and Pulinbihari Sen, edited a collection of poems translated by Tagore himself, and the book, leaving out the introductory poem, contained 130 poems arranged in a chronological order except the introductory poem and the last poem. The book also contained some translations by Amiya Chakrabarti. But since this volume is concerned only with Tagore's English writings those translations have been left out, and thus here we have in addition to the introductory poem , just 120 poems. The poems No.7, “ Ahalyar Prati ” was first published under the title “The Return” in The Nation on 25 April 1914 . There are some interesting variations in the text as printed here and the text of The Nation.

Stray Birds was published by Macmillan , New York , in 1916. It had a frontpiece in colour done by Willy Pogany, and the book was dedicated to T.Hara of Japan whose hospitality Tagore had enjoyed during his visit to Japan . It contains 326 terse, sententious epigrams , the sources of most of which can be traced back to Ksanika and Lekhan . The text and structure of the poems remind one of short Greek , Sanskrit and Persian epigrams. Some scholars have suggested the influence of Japanese ‘Haiku' poems as well, as Tagore had a great admiration for these poems.

Fireflies was first published by Macmillan , New York , in 1923. The book contains 256 epigrammatic verses most of which are translations of the Bengali poems of Lekhan and Sphulinga , and a few directly written in English. The title is derived fro the first verse of Lekhan .

The Child was first published by Allen and Unwin, London , in 1931. Although this is not the only poem written directly in English it is the only major poem to be written directly in English by Tagore. The poem was occasioned by Tagore's experience of a passion play that he had witnessed at Oberammergau , near Munich , in July 1930. Tagore later translated the poem into Bengali under the title Sisutirtha .

One Hundred Poems of Kabir first published by India Society, London, in 1914, and three years later it was reprinted by Macmillan, London, as well as Macmillan, New York, in 1917. The title of the New York edition, however, was slightly different: Songs of Tagore .

The poems are English translations of Kabir of Kshitimoham Sen, published in four parts in 1910-11.

Kabir was born of Muslim parents around 1440. Legends tell us that he was adopted by a Muslim weaver of Benaras, and by profession Kabir was also a weaver. He grew up at a time when the religious philosophy of the Persian mystics was having a great impact on Indian religious thought. Kabir, as a religious reformer , wanted to reconcile the two by insisting that a man is as much a child of Allah as of Ram. In this respect he significantly contributed to the endeavours of his preceptor Ramananda in his insistence on the primacy of heart over the head, in religion. Although a religious reformer and a founder of a new sect Kabir is best known for his divine lyrics. A beautiful legend surrounds his funeral rites. The Muslims wanted to bury him while the Hindus wanted to cremate the body. Eventually Kabir appeared on the scene and asked the mixed gathering to lift the shroud. On lifting the shroud it was seen that in place of the dead body of Kabir there were only flowers. The Muslims buried half of the flowers and the Hindus burnt the other half.

The first edition of The Fugitive was published in Bolpur probably in 1919. In 1921 Macmillan published it with some major changes, and it is generally presumed that it was Tagore himself who made the changes.

Lekhan has an interesting history. When it was originally printed in 1926 it had 420 short poetic compositions, out of which 150 had both Bengali and English versions, while 72 poems were only in English and 48 in Bengali. All these 222 English poems – original or translations—were later included in Fireflies with some changes in punctuation, syntax, diction and lineation. The only point of printing the poems in this volume is to let the readers ponder a while about the aesthetics of the changes.

“To Shakespeare” , Tagore's translation of his own Bengali poem on Shakespeare, was included in A Book of Homage to Shakespeare , published by the Oxford University Press in 1916 on the occasion of the tercentenary of Shakespeare's death.

“A Weary Pilgrim…” was written by Tagore on his way to Japan in May 1919, and was published in The Modern Review in August 1929.

“Appeal for Relief” is Tagore's own translation of the verse he wrote as the President of the Bengal Congress Flood and Famine Relief Committee, a position which he accepted at the request of Sri Subhash Chandra Bose. It was published in Liberty on 6 September in 1931.

“The Cleanser” is Tagore's translation of Satyendranath Dutta's Bengali poem “Methar”; it was published in Harijan on 11 February 1933 , and later reprinted in The Modern Review and Visva-Bharati Quarterly in July 1955.

“Freedom from Fear”, written on 27 September 1933 on the occasion of the death anniversary of Raja Rammohun Roy ; it was published in Forward .

“Deshabandhu Chittaranjan Das” is an English translation of Tagore's own Bengali poem on Chittaranjan Das ;it was published in Visva-Bharati News , Vol.4, No.1, July 1935.

“Ramakrishna Paramahamsa” was published in Prabuddha Bharata in December 1935.

“My Prayer for India ” was published in The Modern Review in August 1930.

“Two Poems Written in Iran ” , -- translation of a pair of Bengali poems by Tagore—was presented by the poet (along with the original poems) to the Shah of Iran during his visit to Iran in 1902.

“My vina breaks out” is an English translation of an original Bengali song.

“You have Come to Me” is a translation of a Bengali song from Gitimalya.

Preface to

The English Writings of Rabindranath Tagore

• Volume 3

This volume contains Tagore's plays, stories in English or English translations.

PLAYS:

Chitra , with which the volume begins was first published by the India Society, London , in 1913. It is the English translation of Citrangada , a Bengali play published in 1892. But there are many changes in the dramatic structure of the play.

Sacrifice and Other Plays was published by Macmillan , New York , in 1917. The other plays referred to in the title are Sanyasi , Malini, The King and the Queen. Thus altogether there are four plays. Sanyasi (The Ascetic) is based on Tagore's Bengali play Prakrtir Pratisodh . There are so many changes in the structure, characterization etc., that it is virtually a new play. Malini is based on Tagore's Bengali play Malini . The translation is fairly faithful, but there are some cuts and condensations. Sacrifice is based on Tagore's Bengali play Bisarjan . It is also drastically revised and condensed , so much so that in place of the five acts of the original Bengali play it has only one act. The King and the Queen is based on Tagore's Bengali play Raja O Rani . In place of the five acts of the original Bengali play the English version has only two acts and many parts of the original play have been left out. Even then many scholars think that the play comes very close to the Shakespearean model.

Autumn Festival is the English version of Tagore's Bengali play, Sarodotsav . The translation was first published in The Modern Review in 1919, and later in book form by A.C.Sarkar from the Brahmo Mission Press in the same year.

The Trial is the English prose translation of Tagore's verse play, Lakshmir Pariksha (The Test of Lakhsmi) was published in The Modern Review in 1920.

The Waterfall , an English translation of Muktadhara (Free Current) was published in The Modern Review in 1922. Tagore's note on the play is produced as ‘A Note on the Play', prefacing the text in this volume.

Red Oleanders , an English translation of Tagore's Bengali play, Raktakarabi , was first published by Macmillan, London , in 1925.

The Crown , the English translation by Tagore of his Bengali play, Mukut, was first printed in Rabindra Biksha in 1983.

King and Rebel , an original work in English , the book was first printed in Rabindra Biksha in 1977.

STORIES:

Of the four stories reprinted in this volume “ Victory ” is the translation of “Jay Parajay”, and was published in 1892 and was later included in Hungry Stones and Other Stories.

“ Giribala ” is the English translation of Tagore's Bengali story “Man Bhanjan” , which was first published in The Modern Review in 1917 and was later included in Broken Ties and Other Stories , published in 1925.

“ The Patriot ”, the English rendering of Tagore's Bengali story “Samskar”, was published in The Modern Review in 1928.

“ The Parrot's Training ”, Tagore's translation of “Tota Kahini” was published by Thacker, Spink and Co., Calcutta and Simla, in 1918. It was later included in The Parrot's Training and Other Stories , published by Visva-Bharati in 1944.

Contd.

Preface to The English Writings of Rabindranath Tagore

• Volume 4

Essays:

Preface to Sadhana:

Sadhana (The Realization of Life) was first published by Macmillan, London in 1913. The book contains eight essays with a Preface by Tagore. In the Preface Tagore wrote: “I should add perhaps that these papers embody in a connected form, suited to this publication, ideas which have been culled from several of the Bengali discourses which I am in the habit of giving to my students in my school at Bolpur (in Bengal); and I have used here and there translations of passages from these (Tagore's Bengali discourse) done by my friends, Babu Satish Chandra Roy and Babu Ajit Kumar Chakravarti and the last paper of the series , ‘Realization in Action' has been translated from my Bengali discourse on ‘Karma-Yoga' by my nephew, Babu Surendranath Tagore.”

On Tagore's own testimony thus we cannot accept these essays as Tagore's English writings – originals or translations, and hence we are painfully obliged to reprint the Preface only.

Personality , a collection of six lectures delivered in America , was first published by Macmillan , New York , in 1917. The book is dedicated to C.F.Andrews.

Nationalism , a collection of three lectures delivered in Japan , was first published by Macmillan , New York , in 1917. This book is dedicated to C.F.Andrews.

The Centre of Indian Culture , originally a lecture delivered in Madras in February 1919, was published by the society for the Promotion of National Education, Adyar, Madras in 1919. Incidentally this is supposed to be the first lecture delivered in English in India by Tagore.

Creative Unity was first published by Macmillan , New York , in 1922. It is dedicated to Dr Edwin, H. Lewis, of Harvard University .

Talks in China , a collection of seven lectures delivered in China was published in Calcutta in 1925. But Sisir Kumar Das points out that another earlier edition had already been published by Visva-Bharati in 1924, but the edition was possibly withdrawn. Both the editions have the same title – but there is some difference in the contents and the arrangement. Three essays of the 1924 edition do not occur in the 1925 edition. So we publish Talks in China in two sections. Section I uses the 1924 edition and Section II , the 1925 edition.

Preface to

The English Writings of Rabindranath Tagore

• Volumes 5-8

One distinctive feature of these volumes—a feature that marks it out from the previous four volumes – is that these volumes include many writings , speeches and utterances of persons other than Tagore. The exigency of the situation and the special character of this volume make it obligatory to use others' writings, particularly when publishing conversations, interviews, etc.

The volume offers a wide spectrum of Tagore's English prose pieces – lectures, essays, letters, speeches, tributes, and conversations and interviews. In range and depth these writings show how myriad-minded Tagore was, and how true is Aldous Huxley's assessment that ‘he was at once a great idealist and a practical man of actions'. He was a poet with a soaring imagination reaching unimaginable heights, a thinker of the highest order who could also be equally concerned with the miserable condition of the village farmers and engaged in co-operative movement and rural reconstruction. A lover of children , he would write poems for children, write textbooks for them, and would also make a fine analysis of the crisis of civilization. A man of remarkable courage of conviction, he would not hesitate to renounce his knighthood and yet would have his own views about nationalism and would be critical about it. It may not immediately concern us here but the fact remains that the same man started painting when he was around seventy and left us a legacy of some two thousand doodles and paintings which have been praised highly by connoisseurs. A few specimens used in these volumes will justify the accolades. A singer himself, he has left us a collection of , again, some two thousand songs. These facts do not immediately concern us here but they are relevant in giving us an idea of the mighty stature of Tagore about whom we can always say what Arnold said about Shakespeare: “Others abide our questions; Thou art free./ We ask and ask, thou smilest and art still, outtopping knowledge.” And, unlike Shakespeare who remained confined only to drama and poetry, Tagore traversed all the fields of literary universe and whatever he touched turned into gold. He was not only a ‘world poet', ‘a great sentinel' or ‘a universal man' but also an artist of the highest order.

# # #

We begin the 5 th volume with the speech that Tagore delivered at Stockholm in 1921. Since Tagore could not attend the Nobel Award Ceremony at Stockholm in 1913 this speech may be regarded as ‘the Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech'. The speech very succinctly describes ‘the growth of a poet's mind'. We learn about his early exposure to Nature, how he ‘used to live in utmost seclusion in the solitude of an obscure Bengal village by the river Ganges in a boat house', his growing love for the children, his translation of the Gitanjali ‘without having any desire to have them published, being diffident of my mastery of that language', his enthusiastic reception in the West, his faith in the cultural heritage of India, for all its splendours and wisdom and wealth, his identification of the spirit of India as ‘the ideal of unity' which he considers as ‘the highest aim of our spiritual exertion to be able to penetrate all things with one soul, to comprehend all things as they are, and not to keep out anything in the whole universe – to comprehend all things with sympathy and love'. The speech, in brief, gives us an idea, though in an embryonic form , of the quality and substance of Tagore's vision of man and India . All his writings can be seen as elaborate manifestations of this vision in diverse forms.

Thoughts from Rabindranath Tagore was first published by Macmillan , New York in 1921 under the title Thought Relic , with 103 pages. The next edition edited by C.F.Andrews came out in 1929 under the title Thoughts from Tagore into three parts and containing 192 passages. The passages are meditative in nature.

The first edition of The Religion of Man , originally delivered as Hibbert Lectures at Manchester College , Oxford , in May 1930, was published by Allen and Unwin in 1930. Tagore made many major corrections in the edition and Macmillan , New York , brought out the second edition, incorporating all these changes, in 1931. The text reproduced here is the second edition. It should, however, be borne in mind, that these lectures are different from Kamala lectures delivered in Calcutta, published as Manuser Dharma (Religion of Man) in Bengali, though there is a marked affinity in tone and temper.

Man was originally delivered as a course of three lectures, at Andhra University , in 1933.

Letters to a Friend , a revised and enlarged edition of Letters from Abroad (1922) was published by George Allen and Unwin, London , in 1928. The Preface and the first two essays are written by Charles Freer Andrews (1871 – 1940). These are also reproduced for a proper understanding of the letters. It is for the same reason that Andrews has presented the letters in several in several chapters with introductory notes. The letter dated 21 April was actually written not to Andrews but to Rothenstein with a copy to Andrews who by mistake included it in the volume.

Mahatmaji and the Depressed Humanity was published by the Visva-Bharati Bookshop, Calcutta in 1932. The book contains lectures, essays, telegrams, etc. , occasioned by Gandhi's decision to ‘fast unto death' in protest ‘against the communal award by Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald'.

East and West , containing the letters exchanged between Gilbert Murray (1866 – 1957) and Tagore was first published in Paris in 1935. Murray , because of his Greek scholarship and love of liberal values, was a great admirer of the poetry of Tagore.

Race Conflict , originally an address delivered at the Congress of the National Federation of Religious Liberals held at Rochester , New York , in 1912; was published in The Modern Review in 1913.

The Spirit of Japan , originally a lecture delivered in Japan in 1915 was first published in The Modern Review in June 1917.

The meeting of the East and the West , a critique of the contemporary political situation in India and originally published in the Manchester Guardian , was reprinted in The Modern Review in June 1918.

At the Crossroads , also an essay on the political situation in India , was published in The Modern Review in July 1918.

The Message of the Forest , originally a lecture delivered in Bangalore on the occasion of the Festival of Fine Arts in January 1919, was published in its revised and enlarged version in May 1919.

Construction Versus Creation , originally an address delivered at the Gujarat Literary Conference, Ahmedabad , on 02 April 1920 , was included in Letters and Addresses , edited by Anthony X. Soares and published in 1920.

The Call for Truth , a criticism of Gandhi's non-cooperation movement , was published in The Modern Review in October 1921.

The Union of Cultures was published in The Modern Review in November 1921. The idea contained in the essay later crystallized in the form of Visva-Bharati , an international university.

A Vision of India's History was first published in Visva-Bharati Quarterly in 1923.

The Way of Unity was published in Visva-Bharati Quarterly in July 1923.

International Relations , originally a lecture delivered in Japan , was first published in Visva-Bharati Quarterly in 1924.

(Volume 6 and Volume 7)

Lectures and Addresses :

( Volume 8 )

Open Letters, Speeches, Tributes, etc ; On Books; Conversations and Interviews

[ Acknowledgment: This popular edition is broadly based on the highly erudite scholarly edition of the English writings of Rabindranath Tagore , edited by Sisir Kumar Das

for Sahitya Akademi.

However, special care has been taken to avoid any infringement on copyrights of the publisher .]

The epithet , "myriad-minded" which Coleridge applied to Shakespeare seems to be more eminently applicable to Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) whose long life of eighty years was marked by ceaseless and torrential flow of creativity manifested in the richness and variety of all kinds of literary forms, dance, drama, music, painting and original organizational activities. Whatever he touched turned into gold. Touching the kindred points of heaven and earth he was both a man of action and of contemplation , a seer and a pioneer in cooperative movement, a writer of most profound poems and an author of children's text-books including books of science, a nationalist and internationalist , a man of royal grandeur like his grandfather, a Prince, and an ascetic like his father, a maharshi. He was both a poet and a painter, a dramatist and an actor, a philosopher and a social reformer, an educationist and a humanist. In his philosophy of life the best of the East and the West are reconciled into a harmonious whole enriching the quality and substance of life which he always saw steady and saw it whole. His life was marked as much by Shakespearean fecundity as by protean plasticity. His inclusive mind aspired after the Universal Man shining in the glory of creation and joie de vivre.

Tagore's unfailing faith in man and divinity, his concern for women and solicitation for children , his sympathy for the poor and the downtrodden, his philosophical speculations and practical wisdom, his perception of the zeitgeist and the evolution of taste -- all find expression in the all-encompassing sweep of his writings in a magnificent synthesis of philosophical profundity and aesthetic luxuriance.

With the passage of time Tagore has only grown in stature and is now reckoned as an increasingly significant and complex personality. Whether seen as a great sentinel or a complete man, the finest exponent of the Bengal Renaissance or the harbinger of a new age, a majestic personality or a deeply scarred individual, it is rewarding to revisit Tagore -- a miracle of literary history -- in the light of modern criticism.