Gitanjali (Song Offerings) a New English Version Paperback – July 22, 2013

I want to explain why I strongly recommend this excellent translation of Tagore's classic, Gitanjali. Winner of the Nobel Prize, Rabindanath Tagore was a towering figure in the literature of modern India and world literature. He was a polymath who wrote plays, novels, short stories, political tracts, exquisite devotional poetry. Along with Gandhi he has been honored as a father of modern India. For many of us who came of age in the twentieth century, Tagore was our first guide to an ecstatic vision of a universe suffused with the Divine presence. Gitanjali, “song offerings”, is a series of heartfelt devotions that Tagore translated from Bengali to English early in the last century. He translated his Bengali poems into Edwardian English prose, making little or no use of the tools available to modern poets since writers like Robert Frost, W.B. Yeats, and William Carlos Williams scrubbed the vestiges of formal 19th century British English out of contemporary poetry. With words like “doth”, “hath”, “ thou”and “thine,” and archaic syntax, Gitanjali commands authority but yields little of the musical properties of those poets who make our current vernacular sing. It is a tribute to Tagore’s access to the deeper wells of human experience that his prose renditions have had a lasting influence despite the formality of his English prose. However, it makes reading his prayerful language hard work for most of us. Fortunately there is an honored place in our literature for translators who do the hard work of rendering archaic classics into living up to date language. We have been particularly enriched by translators like Stephen Mitchell, Coleman Barks, and Seamus Heaney who have given us seemingly direct access to some of the world’s richest poetic offerings. Add to that list Mark Ruskin who has provided us with his straight forward, musical, and deeply respectful translation of Tagore’s Gitanjali. Compare Tagore’s Edwardian prose translation with Ruskin’s twenty-first century poetic rendition. First, Tagore’s prose:Now it is time to sit quiet, face to face with thee, and sing dedication of life in this silent and over-flowing leisure.Here it is in Ruskin’s capable hands:Now it’s time to sit silently with you,face to faceand to sing my devotion to lifein this overflowing stillness.Ruskin here makes use of the poetic line to emphasis Tagore’s direct encounter by offsetting“face to face” and by using enjambment to imply a brief pause after “devotion to life”. He makes the obscure phrase “sing dedication of life” clear and direct as “to sing my devotion to life”, and the arcane “over-flowing leisure” becomes “overflowing stillness”. It is hard to know what an overflowing leisure might be but not so with a bountiful stillness. Translators who tackle spiritual and ecstatic poetry, words that, like the best of Indian kirtan music, express a sense of awe and prayerful delight necessarily require a translator who has confident experience of in-depth spiritual encounters and who is a poet in his or her own right. Here is another example: In Tagore’s prose:Pluck this little flower and take it, delay not! I fear lest it droop anddrop into the dust.And here is Ruskin’s translation:Quick! Pick this little flower nowbefore it droops and drops into the dust.Which of these versions is truest to the lively imperative to act now and be quick about it?Which provides a clear and direct meaning? And which is most likely to be memorable afterafffdffffa

This book was my introduction to Tagore, a poet, novelist, playwright, composer and artist who lived in a part of India which is now Bangladesh. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. His poetry is religious and mystical, but not of any particular denomination. I like that his poems are loving and inspirational, and are often about a half-page each. Mostly I use the poems for readings in a small prayer group.

I recommend against buying this version of Gitanjali. Physically, the book is beautifully presented, but this "new version" is flawed in a major way. Unable to resist the self-indulgent urge to "improve" the original translation,, Mark Ruskin loudly speaks over the pure voice of Tagore by inventing titles for each of the 103 songs! No less. In the original, Tagore did not give a title to any of his songs with the effect of conveying a sense of the infinity that he is seeking.Ruskins' book turns Tagore's magnificent and seamless collection of songs into a grocery list. What pathetic arrogance... Fortunately, there are other choices.

Beautiful poems, and good modern, accessible translation. You don't need to be Sufi, or Hindu, or Christian, or even religious - these could be love poems to the divine inside of everyone.

Ruskin's Gitanjali is a stunning assembly of inspiring love poems. He did a brilliant job in both translation and modernization while still preserving Tagore's voice. One of my absolute favorites, I highly recommend at all that love poetry!

As a long time fan of Rumi and Hafiz ecstatic poetry, I have admired the work of Tagore, but never before has his poetry been this accessible or enjoyable to me. I am very thankful to Mark Ruskin for doing such a soulful job of bringing this language up to date, while preserving the essence of these beautiful and stirring devotional love poems. I recommend this book highly and am gifting it to a few friends as well. A taste: I am only waiting, to completely surrender myself, into Love's hands... Yes!

A book of over 100 short, inspirational "song offerings." Read one every day as a meditation to touch those important parts of ourselves that get trampled as we get caught up in the minutia of our daily lives. This book is a keeper!

This book is for readers who don't care for original work. Poetry lovers would find this Mark Ruskin version so diluted that it fails to command the imagination.If one is unaware of the greatness of the original writer and translator, one would think it's the work of a novice.