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Selected Poems of Rabindranath Tagore (Penguin Classics) Paperback – September 27, 2005

by Rabindranath Tagore (Author), William Radice (Editor, Translator, Introduction)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 95 ratings
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A Penguin Classic

The poems of Rabindranath Tagore are among the most haunting and tender in Indian and in world literature, expressing a profound and passionate human yearning. His ceaselessly inventive works deal with such subjects as the interplay between God and the world, the eternal and transient, and with the paradox of an endlessly changing universe that is in tune with unchanging harmonies. Poems such as “Earth” and “In the Eyes of a Peacock” present a picture of natural processes unaffected by human concerns, while others, as in “Recovery – 14,” convey the poet's bewilderment about his place in the world. And exuberant works such as “New Rain” and “Grandfather's Holiday” describe Tagore's sheer joy at the glories of nature or simply in watching a grandchild play.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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  1. Print length
    208 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Penguin Classics
  4. Publication date
    September 27, 2005
  5. Dimensions
    8.5 x 5.43 x 0.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0140449884
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0140449884
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

By the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

“An important book . . . William Radice's introduction is excellent.” —The Sunday Times (London)

About the Author

Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) a Bengali poet, Brahmo Samaj philosopher, visual artist, playwright, novelist, and composer whose works reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A cultural icon of Bengal and India, he became Asia's first Nobel laureate when he won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature.

William Radice was born in 1951 in London. He is a poet and a scholar and translator of Bengali, and has written or edited nearly thirty books. He has also translated Tagore's short stories and his novel, The Home and the World, for Penguin.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Classics; Revised edition (September 27, 2005)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0140449884
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0140449884
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.3 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.5 x 5.43 x 0.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 95 ratings

About the author

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Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore

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Rabindranath Tagore was a Nobel Laureate for Literature (1913) as well as one of India’s greatest poets and the composer of independent India’s national anthem, as well as that of Bangladesh. He wrote successfully in all literary genres, but was first and foremost a poet, publishing more than 50 volumes of poetry. He was a Bengali writer who was born in Calcutta and later traveled around the world. He was knighted in 1915, but gave up his knighthood after the massacre of demonstrators in India in 1919.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
95 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Kathy J. Phillips
5.0 out of 5 stars dramatic and socially aware
Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2019
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My grandmother had a book of short, devotional poems by Tagore, but I had no idea he could empathize with and recreate the social circumstances of so many different groups in Bengal. He makes up varied persona in the poems, dramatizes, and plays inventively with language. The poems he wrote after a series of deaths of close family members are also very moving.
3 people found this helpful
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David Winkler
5.0 out of 5 stars Well worth reading
Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2013
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For one who likes poetry, Tagore's work (in English translation) is certainly worth sampling and exploring. It was my first experience with Far Eastern / Indian literature, and I was taken by the beauty of its language and insight.
2 people found this helpful
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Grace11
5.0 out of 5 stars Great!
Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2013
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Excellent. Purchased on the recommendation of a colleague and was a great buy. Loved the delicate and lush imagery in Tagore's poetry
One person found this helpful
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AYJ
3.0 out of 5 stars Hints, but much of Tagore's genius seems lost in translation
Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2023
Translating poetry is nearly impossible. Either you stick to the prescribed rhyme scheme and rhythm, and sacrifice accuracy of content, or you translate the meaning and lose the music. And that doesn’t take into account the depth of cultural and situational allusion which is lost in translation – imagine trying to read Robert Frost with no knowledge of snow, or William Blake with no knowledge of the Bible.
I picked up these selected poems because I had heard of Tagore as the national poet of Bangladesh and a Nobel Prize winner. I carefully read both the lengthy introduction by the translator so I would know what to expect, and I also perused the extensive notes which accompany each poem. I still felt, after reading the forty-eight poems in this selection, that I failed to understand what Tagore was about.
Some of the earlier poems are narratives, and these are very powerful, notably “Devoured by the Gods” which tells of a mother who goes on pilgrimage and makes a thoughtless promise to the god of the sea, which she is forced to redeem later. This is an extremely powerful tale, hitting the hot buttons of maternal anger leading to betrayal of her child’s trust in her. A child in peril is a cross-cultural heart-tugger. Another poem, “The Bride” depends on the reader knowing something about how a young Indian girl might be torn from her home on marriage and be made a scullion in her new home, a slave to the women of the house. Again, a trope that is hard to resist. Tagore’s images are vivid, the stories strong.
But in translation, are they poetry? The “Iliad” and “Odyssey” are likewise powerful stories, but no translator has ever claimed to have equaled the swing and momentum of the original Greek. I found nothing here that I could cling to,
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Ron E. Goulet
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2017
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the book was delivered in very good condition.
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Book n' Betty
5.0 out of 5 stars Intro to Tagore
Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2014
This is a lovely selection of poems and gives a good intro to reading Tagore. He writes short stories and most of his work is put to music, but his poetry can and does stand alone. I'd think of him like a MIchael Jackson musical genius and poet.
2 people found this helpful
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Fayyaz Ahmed
2.0 out of 5 stars Good translation but an awful print
Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2020
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Book itself is good and translation is excellent but the print is Terrible!
It’s really hard for me to understand that how come it’s so pricey with such a poor quality print
I am giving poor rating only because of its print
2 people found this helpful
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Jennifer Grey
3.0 out of 5 stars Gives the sense, but perhaps not the sensibility
Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2013
The problem with reading Tagore is that, if you know anything about the man, it's difficult to raise your face from a prostrated we're-not-worthy position long enough to make sense of what's on the page. The first non-Western winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Tagore was a polymath: painter, poet, political theorist, physicist. This is a dude who chatted it up with Einstein. That's an awful lot of impressed to bring to any reading of verse, particularly one rendered in translation.

From what little I've read on the subject, it seems Tagore's own translation of his work from Bengali to English were less than successful, hence William Radice trying his hand at it here. The results are mixed.

Radice's introduction and extremely thorough afternotes (which both explicate the poems and discuss why he chose certain phrases, noting any deviations from the strictly faithful translation)are both interesting and helpful. The poetry itself fares slightly less well, though the strength of the images wins through more often than not. But those same marvelous afternotes reveal the sometimes extensive liberties Radice takes, which leaves one wondering just whom one is truly reading. Interesting, but unlikely to inflame those new to Tagore.
10 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

shoestopper
5.0 out of 5 stars As expected with readable and easy poetry.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 14, 2023
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I liked the simple themes but they were written in a foreign Indian language. When the author writes in English he comes into his own among other writers of poetry in English.
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Milo
5.0 out of 5 stars Only for choosen
Reviewed in France on May 16, 2021
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If you want to know your self make a pose and read this book
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Steve Peach
5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 6, 2022
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An inspiring book, wonderful imagery and language
One person found this helpful
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Clare
5.0 out of 5 stars Tagore
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 13, 2020
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Just wonderful - so observant, compassionate and thought provoking.
One person found this helpful
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Mr C Robilliard
3.0 out of 5 stars Kindle version sometime makes for difficult reading
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 21, 2021
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Good selction of poems
One person found this helpful
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