Thursday, March 11, 2010

Thursdays With Tagore

Poems are not my cup of tea, most of the time. But I love Rabindranath Tagore's poems.  The few poems I've read so far have been beautiful, though some have gone over my head. 

Still, I'm quite determined to read as many of his poems as possible! I have the book I Won't Let You Go : Selected Poems of Rabindranath Tagore translated by Ketaki Kushari Dyson from the original in Bengali. I have read the wonderfully detailed introduction about Tagore, his genius and his life before and after the Nobel prize for Literature for his Gitanjali. Dyson also deciphers the roots behind the ideas in  the multi-talented genius Tagore's poems.



Every Thursday, I shall read one of Tagore's poems as translated in the book or some other poem I can find. I shall post some lines from the poem and perhaps a detail of how I liked this poem or not. I'm looking forward to this and any others who want to join in this meme are absolutely welcome to do so! 

Tagore is a wonderful poet whose poems, I think, should be read by everyone, perhaps just to know what you might be missing out on. 

This is one short poem I absolutely love. Very direct, very beautiful and it brought a smile to my face :)

Those who wish to sit, shut their eyes
and meditate to know if the world's true or lies,
may do so. It's their choice. But I meanwhile
with hungry eyes that can't be satisfied
shall take a look at the world in broad daylight.

4 comments:

Priya Iyer said...

hey! came to your blog thru shweta's... hope you are enjoying reading salman rushdie for the book club.. :)

i LOVE tagore's poems.. they are so simple and yet so touching.. i loved the concept of thursdays with tagore..can i borrow the concept for my blog - maybe with a little modification?

Vaishnavi said...

I love poetry but I have never read Tagore. I badly want to read his works now but don't know how to go about it....can you give me some direction?? I love the concept by the way :)

Veens said...

Poetry goes over my head... But I will definitely TRY! :)
No Promises Kals :)

But I really like this small piece.. lovely indeed.

Kals said...

Priya - Yes..I'm enjoying Rushdie so far :) Do go ahead and do your own Thursdays with Tagore meme! The more the merrier. But do make sure to credit my blog for the meme :)

Vaishnavi - Thank you :) I suggest you try getting any collection of Tagore's poems. Gitanjali would be an interesting place to start but you can also google and find some excellent poems of his online. I hope you enjoy reading!

Veens - Thanks :) Give it a try! Most poetry, including Tagore's goes over my head some times. But it's worth the effort :)

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