Letters from a Young Poet Read online




  Rabindranath Tagore

  LETTERS FROM A YOUNG POET 1887–1895

  Translated from the Bengali by Rosinka Chaudhuri

  Contents

  About the Author

  Dedication

  Note on Transliteration

  List of Bengali Months and Seasons

  Introduction

  Letters

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  Chapter 71

  Chapter 72

  Chapter 73

  Chapter 74

  Chapter 75

  Chapter 76

  Chapter 77

  Chapter 78

  Chapter 79

  Chapter 80

  Chapter 81

  Chapter 82

  Chapter 83

  Chapter 84

  Chapter 85

  Chapter 86

  Chapter 87

  Chapter 88

  Chapter 89

  Chapter 90

  Chapter 91

  Chapter 92

  Chapter 93

  Chapter 94

  Chapter 95

  Chapter 96

  Chapter 97

  Chapter 98

  Chapter 99

  Chapter 100

  Chapter 101

  Chapter 102

  Chapter 103

  Chapter 104

  Chapter 105

  Chapter 106

  Chapter 107

  Chapter 108

  Chapter 109

  Chapter 110

  Chapter 111

  Chapter 112

  Chapter 113

  Chapter 114

  Chapter 115

  Chapter 116

  Chapter 117

  Chapter 118

  Chapter 119

  Chapter 120

  Chapter 121

  Chapter 122

  Chapter 123

  Chapter 124

  Chapter 125

  Chapter 126

  Chapter 127

  Chapter 128

  Chapter 129

  Chapter 130

  Chapter 131

  Chapter 132

  Chapter 133

  Chapter 134

  Chapter 135

  Chapter 136

  Chapter 137

  Chapter 138

  Chapter 139

  Chapter 140

  Chapter 141

  Chapter 142

  Chapter 143

  Chapter 144

  Chapter 145

  Chapter 146

  Chapter 147

  Chapter 148

  Chapter 149

  Chapter 150

  Chapter 151

  Chapter 152

  Chapter 153

  Chapter 154

  Chapter 155

  Chapter 156

  Chapter 157

  Chapter 158

  Chapter 159

  Chapter 160

  Chapter 161

  Chapter 162

  Chapter 163

  Chapter 164

  Chapter 165

  Chapter 166

  Chapter 167

  Chapter 168

  Chapter 169

  Chapter 170

  Chapter 171

  Chapter 172

  Chapter 173

  Chapter 174

  Chapter 175

  Chapter 176

  Chapter 177

  Chapter 178

  Chapter 179

  Chapter 180

  Chapter 181

  Chapter 182

  Chapter 183

  Chapter 184

  Chapter 185

  Chapter 186

  Chapter 187

  Chapter 188

  Chapter 189

  Chapter 190

  Chapter 191

  Chapter 192

  Chapter 193

  Chapter 194

  Chapter 195

  Chapter 196

  Chapter 197

  Chapter 198

  Chapter 199

  Chapter 200

  Chapter 201

  Chapter 202

  Chapter 203

  Chapter 204

  Chapter 205

  Chapter 206

  Chapter 207

  Chapter 208

  Chapter 209

  Chapter 210

  Chapter 211

  Chapter 212

  Chapter 213

  Chapter 214

  Chapter 215

  Chapter 216

  Chapter 217

  Chapter 218

  Chapter 219

  Chapter 220

  Chapter 221

  Chapter 222

  Chapter 223

  Chapter 224

  Chapter 225

  Chapter 226

  Chapter 227

  Chapter 228

  Chapter 229

  Chapter 230

  Chapter 231

  Chapter 232

  Chapter 233

  Chapter 234

  Chapter 235

  Chapter 236

  Chapter 237

  Chapter 238

  Chapter 239

  Chapter 240

  Chapter 241

  Chapter 242

  Chapter 243

  Chapter 244

  Chapter 245

  Chapter 246

  Chapter 247

  Chapter 248

  Chapter 249

  Chapter 250

  Chapter 251

  Chapter 252

  Footnotes

  Introduction

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36
>
  Chapter 44

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 70

  Chapter 71

  Chapter 75

  Chapter 77

  Chapter 86

  Chapter 92

  Chapter 110

  Chapter 117

  Chapter 123

  Chapter 144

  Chapter 151

  Chapter 152

  Chapter 159

  Chapter 177

  Chapter 180

  Chapter 191

  Chapter 193

  Chapter 197

  Chapter 215

  Chapter 217

  Chapter 218

  Chapter 222

  Notes

  Acknowledgements

  Read More

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  Copyright Page

  PENGUIN MODERN CLASSICS

  Letters from a Young Poet

  RABINDRANATH TAGORE (1861–1941) was a key figure of the Bengal Renaissance. He started writing at an early age and by the turn of the century had become a household name in Bengal as a poet, a songwriter, a playwright, an essayist, a short-story writer and a novelist. In 1913 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and his verse collection Gitanjali came to be known internationally. At about the same time he founded Visva-Bharati, a university located in Santiniketan, near Kolkata. Called the ‘Great Sentinel’ of modern India by Mahatma Gandhi, Tagore steered clear of active politics but is famous for returning his knighthood as a gesture of protest against the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919.

  Tagore was a pioneering literary figure, renowned for his ceaseless innovations in poetry, prose, drama, music and painting—which he took up late in life. His works include some sixty collections of verse, nearly a hundred short stories, several novels, plays, dance dramas, essays on religious, social and literary topics, and over 2500 songs, including the national anthems of India and Bangladesh.

  ROSINKA CHAUDHURI is Professor in Cultural Studies at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. She has been Visiting Fellow at the Southern Asian Institute, Columbia University, and Charles Wallace Fellow at Cambridge University. She is the author of Gentlemen Poets in Colonial Bengal, Freedom and Beef-Steaks and The Literary Thing. She has edited Derozio, Poet of India and co-edited The Indian Postcolonial. Her articles have appeared in various reputed journals including Journal of Asian Studies, Social Text, Modern Asian Studies and Economic and Political Weekly; she reviews for the Book Review and the Times Literary Supplement.

  To the memory of my grandfather,

  Satis Ranjan Khastgir (1898–1973),

  who went to live in Santiniketan because

  he loved Rabindranath.

  I celebrate myself, and sing myself,

  And what I assume you shall assume,

  For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

  I loafe and invite my soul,

  I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

  Walt Whitman, ‘Song of Myself’, Leaves of Grass, 1855

  Note on Transliteration

  In transliterating Bengali words the Bengali Romanization table from the Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/bengali.pdf) has been used, with the exception of content within quotation marks, where the original spellings within the quote have been retained, and, of course, most proper nouns. The only departure has been that the implicit vowel a that is mandatory after all consonants and consonant clusters in transliteration has generally not been used at the end of a word unless pronounced. Titles of Sanskrit works have been represented in their Bengali pronunciation. Bracketed Bengali words have also been inserted on occasion to both clarify particular terms difficult to translate and sometimes to instantly remind the reader of well-known lines from Tagore.

  Key to Transliteration and Pronunciation

  In preparing the pronunciation guide, examples have been provided where possible: these are arbitrary and merely indicative. The words provided as examples are sometimes taken from proper nouns that make it comprehensible to the South Asian reader. Similarly, the examples given for aspirated sounds that are routinely not aspirated in this region (such as the ‘t’ in table) make it a guide only for those familiar with English pronunciation here—which the Western reader will have to have a knowledge of in order to comprehend the key.

  Vowels and Dipthongs

  (With the exception of two vowels, pronounced rhi and li, which have not been used here)

  a

  pronounced like aw in awful

  ā

  pronounced like the a in far

  ī

  pronounced like the i in it

  i

  pronounced like ee in steel

  ū

  pronounced like the u in put

  u

  pronounced like the oo in scoot

  ṛ

  pronounced like the ri in Hrithik

  e

  pronounced like the a in day

  ai

  pronounced approximately like oi in hoi-polloi

  o

  pronounced like the o in onerous

  au

  pronounced approximately like the au in Kaurava, but with an ‘o’ sound as above

  Consonants

  Gutturals

  ka

  pronounced like the k in kite

  kha

  pronounced like the kh in khaki

  ga

  pronounced like the g in goose

  gha

  pronounced like an aspirated ‘ga’ sound, as in Ghana

  ṅ

  used in conjunction with a consonant like ‘ga’, pronounced like the ng in thing

  Palatals

  ca

  pronounced like the ch in change

  cha

  pronounced like an aspirated ‘ca’ sound, as in Chhattisgarh

  ja

  pronounced like the j in jam

  jha

  pronounced like an aspirated ‘ja’ sound, as in Jharkhand

  ña

  used in conjunction with a consonant like ‘ca’, pronounced like the n in trenchant

  Cerebrals

  ta [ṭ]

  pronounced as in table

  tha [ṭh]

  pronounced like an aspirated ‘ta’ sound

  da [ḍ]

  pronounced as in dog

  ra [ṛ]

  pronounced like an aspirated ‘ra’ sound

  dha [ḍh]

  pronounced like an aspirated ‘dha’ sound, as in Dhaka

  rha [ṛh]

  pronounced like an emphatic aspirated ‘ra’ sound

  na [ṇ]

  pronounced like a cerebral ‘na’ sound

  Dentals

  ta

  pronounced as in entente

  t [t]

  pronounced like an aspirated ‘ta’ sound

  tha

  pronounced like an aspirated ‘ta’ sound, similar to above, as in thing

  da

  pronounced like a soft d as in rendezvous

  dha

  pronounced as in dharma

  na

  pronounced as in not

  Labials

  pa

  pronounced like the p in rapt

  pha

  pronounced like an aspirated ‘pa’ sound

  ba

  pronounced like the b in Bombay

  bha

  pronounced like an aspirated ‘ba’ sound, as in Bharat

  ma

  pronounced like the m in mother

  Semivowels

  ya

  pronounced like the ‘ja’ sound

  ẏ

  pronounced like the y sound in yacht

  ra

  pronounced like the r sound in river

  la

  pronounced like the l sound in love

  ba

  pronounced like the b in boat

 
; Sibilants

  śa

  pronounced like the sh sound in shame

  sha

  same as above

  sa

  same as above

  Aspirate

  ha

  pronounced like the h in happy

  Anusvār: ṃ

  pronounced like ng in thing

  Bisarga: ḥ

  pronounced like h in Utah

  Chandra-bindu:

  the half-moon sign with a dot over it above the concerned letter being unavailable, the symbol ň has been used to indicate the use of the chandrabindu or anunāsika.

  Bengali Months and Seasons

  The Bengali year begins on the first of Baiśākh or Paẏlā Baiśākh, which corresponds to 15 April. The months that follow are:

  Baiśākh

  mid-April to mid-May

  Jaiẏshṭha

  mid-May to mid-June

  Āshāṛh

  mid-June to mid-July

  Śrābaṇ

  mid-July to mid-August

  Bhādra

  mid-August to mid-September

  Āśvin

  mid-September to mid-October

  Kārtik

  mid-October to mid-November

  Agrahāẏaṇ

  mid-November to mid-December

  Paush

  mid-December to mid-January

  Māgh

  mid-January to mid-February

  Phālgun

  mid-February to mid-March

  Caitra

  mid-March to mid-April

  There are six seasons in the Bengali calendar:

  grīshma

  summer

  barsha

  rainy season

  īarat

  end of rains, roughly autumn

  hemanta

  autumn leading to winter

  śīt

  winter

  basanta

  spring

  Introduction

  Of all of Rabindranath’s prose, I have read Chinnapatra the most frequently throughout my life. When I first went abroad, I was very careful to keep it with me always—so that, from a distance of twelve thousand miles, I could sometimes touch the heart of Bengal—Buddhadeva Bose1