Publication
Rupa & co, c1913
Status
Available
Description
The Gardener by Rabindranath Tagore is a poem that tells the story of an old gardener and his special relationship with a tree. The gardener treats the plant as if it were his child, and even talks to it when he is alone. When the plant starts to wither, the gardener realizes he has to cut it down so that it will stop suffering. Through this narrative, Tagore shows how love can bring about pain and loss if not properly handled.
User reviews
LibraryThing member edwinbcn
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated 2011 as the Year of Tagore, celebrating the 150th anniversary of his birth. Rabindranath Tagore was the first non-European author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, in 1913. Authors from the Eastern
In the first forty years of his career, Rabindranath Tagore wrote in his native Bengali, fearing that his English was not good enough. After 1911, he started translating some of his own poetry into English, but the vast majority of his poems remains untranslated.
Tagore is mostly known for his poetry, although he also wrote novels, short stories, plays, and essays, and composed more than 300 pieces of music and more than 2,500 songs. He also wrote for the theatre, both dramas, musical plays, and ballets. Nonetheless, Tagore is still relatively unknown in the West, perhaps heard of, but little read. At a higher age, Tagore also expressed himself in drawing and painting.
The gardener is a cycle of 85 love poems. Tagore's poetry in Bengali was mostly written in rhyme. In his later years, he also experimented with prose poems. His English translations, such as the poems in The gardener have alliteration, but no end rhyme.
His poetry is lyrical, tinged with an all pervading optimism, drawing of observations of simple life and nature. Extensive use of simile, metaphor and allegory create an atmosphere of mysticism, and Tagore's spirituality may, at first, estrange the Western reader. His many references to God in the English poems should be understood as reference to an over-arching God Being, never entirely pan-theistic, and never specifically referring to any known Gods or deities.
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world are heavily underrepresented, and it wasn't until the late 1980s that the Prize was awarded to writers in Arabic, Japanese and, later on, Chinese-speaking traditions.In the first forty years of his career, Rabindranath Tagore wrote in his native Bengali, fearing that his English was not good enough. After 1911, he started translating some of his own poetry into English, but the vast majority of his poems remains untranslated.
Tagore is mostly known for his poetry, although he also wrote novels, short stories, plays, and essays, and composed more than 300 pieces of music and more than 2,500 songs. He also wrote for the theatre, both dramas, musical plays, and ballets. Nonetheless, Tagore is still relatively unknown in the West, perhaps heard of, but little read. At a higher age, Tagore also expressed himself in drawing and painting.
The gardener is a cycle of 85 love poems. Tagore's poetry in Bengali was mostly written in rhyme. In his later years, he also experimented with prose poems. His English translations, such as the poems in The gardener have alliteration, but no end rhyme.
His poetry is lyrical, tinged with an all pervading optimism, drawing of observations of simple life and nature. Extensive use of simile, metaphor and allegory create an atmosphere of mysticism, and Tagore's spirituality may, at first, estrange the Western reader. His many references to God in the English poems should be understood as reference to an over-arching God Being, never entirely pan-theistic, and never specifically referring to any known Gods or deities.
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LibraryThing member AliceAnna
Lovely lyrical poetry in the Hindu tradition.
LibraryThing member EnockPioUlle
My beloved poet and one of his masterpieces. Some of the most beautiful verses ever written about love.
Language
Original language
Bengali
ISBN
8171678211 / 9788171678211
Original publication date
1913