Rabindranath Tagore

[a.ratchasi]

Any fans of Rabindranath Tagore around?
I just realised we have don't have a single thread honouring him!

Below are some links about the Nobel laureate:

Biography

More on Tagore

Quotes

[gaddeswarup]

I am not exactly a fan of Rabindranath Tagore. I read some of his books only in translation. in English and Telugu. I enjoyed his short stories but not novels. His Gitanjali sounded much better in Bengali and seemed fairly pedestrian in English. There isa clever novel "Sesher Kobita"; one of the tranlations (by ? Kulkarni ) is titled "Farewell my Friend". I enjoyed this translation in which the hero Amit Roy makes fun of Tagore. Here he comes with an interesting comment; "knowledge is like a stone and culture like a sparkle; one weighs and the other shines'. Of course Rabindra Sangeet is very nice ; he adopted music from several countries. Somehow, his poetry seemed to depend very much on Bengali sounds and looses much in translation. His paintings are interesting, but I do not know much about painting. He is clealy versatile and probably in the genius category but I would guess that his appeal is more to those who know Bengali. I liked Sarat's novels "Sesh Prasna", "Sreekant" and Premchand's novels "Nirmala" and "Godan" much better than Tagore's novels. This is all from memory. If I read Tagore again, I may change my mind.
Swarup

[a.ratchasi]

I too have read the short stories only namely the ones in the book called The Hungry Stones. Very captiviting indeed. I am unable to compare these with the original book as I am not bengali literate. I felt the translations illustrated well enough to warrant the actual words of Tagore, if not more.

I am yet to to read his poetry and if I do intend to in the near future, it wil be Gitanjali. I was told of the same as mentioned by you, Swarup. Most people pretty much felt the same way for his poetical works.

The short story, Subha, is the one that actually entralled me to read his works.

Here's the link:
Subha

[rain]

hi ratchasi,

found both ur links to tagore interesting! and a story that pulls at ur heart strings. thanks.

rain

[Querida]

Hi Ratchasi,

Good topic indeed, it is too much for me to read all at once..but of what I did read his poems: little flute and lotus...as well as sweet Subha have endeared me to him..i remember faintly reading works by Anita Desai which contained quotes of his work as well as some story about seccubi written included in a collection of horror stories...but that's all...

[polka dot]

I is a die hard fan to Rabrindronath Tagore! Well you expect me to be, being Bengali and all. Tagore to me exemplifies literature. I love his songs, his plays, his poetry. Don't have a favourite as such..but he defintely is up there with all the great literati.

Anyone watched Coker Bali?
I love the song 'purano shei diner kotha' that is featured in the film. Hto say Aish's acting is very good in it too!

[Alan]

Years ago, when I was studying in 4th std, I have read 'The Wreck' I don't know...........even as a kid, I could make out the depth of the story!

I tried to read a short story collection but the translation was really poor- grammatical mistakes & all- though the stories were meaningful- so I left it midway. This thread inspires me to start reading Tagore again.

[Wibha]

his 'Cabuliwallah'
is my favorite and evergreen short story

[rain]

one can also watch the movie.it's very touching ....it's a very old black and white movie by tapan sinha but it's handled with lot of sensitivity.it had won awards too....this 'kabuliwallah'is the bengali movie and comes with english subtitles.there is a hindi version but never seen that.....

[sundararaj]

Few short stories I 've read long back, now almost forgotten. He is really great.