Rabindranath Tagore's 1912 English prose-poem collection, drawn and reworked by the poet himself from his Bengali Gitanjali (1910) and several earlier devotional cycles. One hundred and three short pieces address a beloved-as-divine in the bhakti idiom — at once intimate and cosmic, lyric and meditative — written in a free, unrhymed English Tagore developed for the project. W. B. Yeats's introduction framed the book for the Anglophone reader and was decisive for its reception.
The English Gitanjali contains translations of 53 poems from the original Bengali collection alongside 50 others drawn from Tagore's Achalayatan, Gitimalya, Naibedya, and Kheya. The translations were often radical, leaving out or altering large sections and in one instance fusing two separate poems. The central theme is devotion — the soul as a vessel repeatedly emptied and refilled by the divine — and its motto, drawn from poem XV, is: "I am here to sing thee songs."
I am here to sing thee songs. In this hall of thine I have a corner seat.
Poem XV
First lines
Thou hast made me endless, such is thy pleasure. This frail vessel thou emptiest again and again, and fillest it ever with fresh life.
Reception
The book that won Tagore the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 — the first non-European laureate, an event of considerable cultural significance in colonial Bengal and across Asia. Yeats, Pound and the early modernists championed it; later reception in English has been more ambivalent, with critics including Buddhadeva Bose and Amit Chaudhuri arguing that Tagore's English self-translations flatten the music and metric subtlety of the Bengali originals. Within Bengali literary tradition Tagore is uncontested; in Anglophone reception his standing has fluctuated, though Gitanjali remains his most-read work in English and a staple of comparative-literature curricula.
Frequently asked
What is Gitanjali: Song Offerings?
It is Rabindranath Tagore's 1912 English prose-poem collection — 103 short pieces drawn from his Bengali devotional cycles, translated into free, unrhymed English by the poet himself. The central theme is bhakti devotion: the soul as a vessel emptied and refilled by the divine, addressed in an intimate yet cosmic register.
Why did Gitanjali win the Nobel Prize?
Tagore received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 for the English Gitanjali, becoming the first non-European laureate. The prize committee cited the idealism and beauty of the collection. W. B. Yeats's enthusiastic introduction, circulated in literary London, was instrumental in bringing the book to wider attention.
Is the English Gitanjali a faithful translation of the Bengali original?
Not strictly. The English version draws from the Bengali Gitanjali (1910) and four other Tagore collections. The translations were often radical, with large sections omitted or altered, and at least one poem is a fusion of two separate Bengali originals. Critics including Buddhadeva Bose have argued this English version flattens the metric and musical complexity of the Bengali.