 Thoughts of days long gone by |
| Review Date: December 5, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Roman Nies, Helibrunna |
Tagore is a child of his time. It was a time of great upheavals in the end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Thanks to his educated, creative human spirit and his literary qualities he was able during his life to comment the events in ever new variations in many ways and especially also in eloquent diversity.
But Tagore had limited effect in the world beyond India, perhaps because he wrote mostly in Bengali. This anthology is just a modest trial to convey an impression of the greatness of this man. It is a mere hint what a thinker and littérateur Tagore must have been.
The material in this book has been put into a timely order. The peculiar introductions contain important information about the context in which the original was once written and short overviews about the contents of the section as well as references to translations. More explanations can be found in the notations at the end of the book. Bengali notions are explained in a glossary.
The book contains contributions about Tagores journeys. All his life long he travelled and held lectures, recorded in letters and diaries. His letters alone filled 12 volumes. Further on the book comprises short stories, which he wrote in every period of his life, then also an excerpt of his life`s memories. Tagore met as a famous Nobel prize winner many notable personalities. This book has some talks, which he had with them, for example with Einstein. Tagore was educated enough that he new about the actual knowledge of science, so that he could formulate in front of the nuclear physician Einstein "the drama of existence is in its essence not absolutely deterministic". Einstein hung fast to his idea of an intramundane causality, whereas Tagore, not contradicting other nuclear physicists, concluded that the non-determination allowed access from outside, be it from a God. The further scientific investigation would cut the ground from under Einsteins desire for causality. In front of Einstein, Tagore also uttered the idea that the whole universe be a human universe.
The book goes on with fables. In his humourous fabels intellectual freedom and irony mix up with deep human feelings. The book has two examples. Of his dramas is but one extraction. Tagiore said that the main principle is the play of feelings not of actions.
Tagore was a universal genie, hence it is not wondrous, that he became also a literature and art critics, whose critique should set up not demolish. According to Tagore man takes part in the creative process of God through his own artistic work. He as God`s likeness is creative to his image. In the arts Tagore claims the union between aesthetics and ethics. Here you can see how far away artists of today are from Tagore!
The book would not be complete without Tagores poetry. Tagore wrote poetry in Bengali. The Bengali is rich in sounding syllables and natural melody. He translated himself his most known work "Gitanjali", of which the book has an excerpt.
The UNESCO and the son of Tagore supported the publication of this anthology, inclined to basical considerations. The agreement of West and East, the proclamation of universal humanity and the task to fulfil it was recognized as the goal of all of Tagore`s writings . A doubtless honourable and high aim of Tagore, that could have made him to a religion founder, if the completion of the human kind, about which Friedrich Wilhelm Josef Schelling philosophized so remarkably excessive, would not have been always the contents of so many religions. What seems to occupy so many people is a thought which bothered Tagore all his life long, also expressed in his works. Man is incomplete and has an ineradicable desire to get rid of the discomfort that worries him thereby. What does Tagore propose as a means for salvation, the more so as the humanity and tolerance and the lust for aesthetical and ethical relevance which he is preaching can as well only be a means to an end? It is dedication to an impersonal ethical Super-Ego, "reconciliation of the super-personal man, the universal human spirit in his own singular-existence". Tagore was Hindu, if not a lifelong follower of Brahmanism, which proclaims the knowledge-orientated dissolution of the individual soul in the world-soul as the last goal of creation. This is a piece of reasoning that must alienate the western society which is so keen on individual freedom rights, especially in face of the failure of the individuality dissolving socialistic conceptions.
In any case a recommendable book with many precious, inspiring and constructive thoughts in a time when aesthetic works of spirit are rather ridiculed, as one publisher told me.
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Well worth the read
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| Review Date: December 11, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Ishan Bhattacharya, Timonium, MD, USA |
| Amiya Chakravarty was my grandfather, so I'm a bit biased. Nevertheless, if you have any interest in Tagore, this book is a superb introduction as well as detailed overview of Tagore and his work. It is easily available from multiple sources. |
A must buy for all Tagore fans!
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| Review Date: February 24, 2003 |
| Reviewer: Sheeba Arnold, Yonkers, NY United States |
| Nobel Laurate, poet, writer, philosopher, musician, painter, educator - Tagore was a multifaceted genius and a renaissance man par excellence! The section on philosophical meditations gives a cross-section of the cosmic vision of his legendary mastermind. Every page of this book resonates his own words; "The world speaks to me in colours, my soul answers in music". Can't recomment this enough for anyone who is interested in literature or philosophy in general or the works of Tagore in particular. |
Samples of Tagore's Output
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| Review Date: February 17, 1999 |
| Reviewer: Randy LeJeune, |
| An excellent sampler of Tagore's work collected by his literary secretary. Contains poetry, conversations with Einstein and H.G. Wells, plays, fables, short stories, essays as well as educational, political and and biographical information. A must read for all Tagorophiles. |
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