fabulous poems and translation

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	• Show Yourself to My Soul: A New Translation of Gitanjali Rabindranath Tagore, James Talarovic, ... Sorin Books, 2002 - 192 pages average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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fabulous poems and translation

Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore is a series of poems exposing Tagore's search for union with the divine. Tagore, a Bengali Hindu, writes with great beauty, emotion and simplicity. Reading the poems in order (there are 157 poems, each about a page or less long) shows the waxing and waning cycles of Tagore's spiritual life. Sometimes God is present to Tagore, only to leave later. A Christian spiritual seeker myself, I could easily relate to the pendulum swing that Tagore writes about: the joys, frustrations and patience. Tagore himself made an English translation of these poems for which he won the Nobel prize for literature in the early 20th century (the first non-European to win the literature prize). Here the translation is by a Catholic monk who spent most of his adult life in Bengal, and many scholars think his translation is better than Tagore's, due to his absolute fluency in both languages. I have read beautiful poems by many spiritual writers, and I found Tagore's Gitanjali the most approachable and meaningful. Highest recommendation.

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The God of his life

I can't read Bengali so I have no way of knowing how faithful Br. James Talarovic was to Rabindranath Tagore's GITANJALI. I have read other translations, even Tagore's own, and at the very least I can say that Talarovic's ring true; that is to say they put words to the dark nights and twilit days of my spirit. Whether this is because Talarovic is a poet in his own right, or because he gave himself to the Bengali language (see his Bengali for Foreigners: Basic Grammar, Basic Vocabulary With Sentences, Secondary Vocabulary, English-Bengali-Transliteration), Br. James was truly in love with Tagore's soul so much that he translated his GITIMALYA and GITALI as well (although at present only the GITANJALI is in print).

The only issue I would take with the previous reviewer is in her referring to Rabindranath Tagore as a Hindu. Tagore's father Debendranath was instrumental in forming the Brahmo Samaj which is a monotheistic religion in approximately the same relationship to Hinduism as contemporary Unitarianism is to Christianity. In actuality, according to Tagore's biographers, he rebelled against any institutional religion as confining. I would guess that he would have more readily identified as an Indian than a Hindu.

I can't recommend Br. James Talarovic's translation of the GITANJALI enough. Besides the quality of the poetry we are indebted to Talarovic for doing what even Rabindranath Tagore didn't do, which was to translate the entire GITANJALI rather than parts of it. SHOW YOURSELF TO MY SOUL is, for me, as edifying as any translation of Rumi, and -- I would venture to say -- equally as profound.

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Out of Bengal and the Hindu spiritual tradition comes a Nobel prize-winning mystical poet whose time for broad, popular acceptance has come. William Butler Yeats fell in love with these poems almost a 100 years ago, the Nobel Committee honored them with their literature prize in 1913 and just recently The Utne Reader cited Tagore as one of today's most overlooked spiritual writers. This new edition is important because its lyrical translation has been made from Tagore's original Bengali and because it makes the entire collection of 157 Gitanjali, or "song offerings" available to a wider audience for the first time. Rabindranath Tagore wrote with the insight and emotion that so characterizes Kahlil Gibran, with the mystical passion that has made Jalaluddin Rumi so popular and with a simplicity and depth that remains fresh and attractive to today's seekers.

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