Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941)

I first read "A Flight of Swans" five years ago, when I rated it 3.5/5 🌟 because I'm an idiot who doesn't recognise transcendent poetry when he reads it. Perhaps that's too harshly self-critical, as I did recognise that I wanted to keep this collection to read again, and it's beautifully 5🌟💖
Tagore writes about love, life, death, god, and the universality of human experience. There's an everpresent sense of spirituality and communion with the divine in people, nature and the show more Universe. I still can't understand or appreciate it all, but that's the mark of genius, I suppose, that you return to the work again and again, finding new treasures each time. show less

আত্নজীবনী ধরণের লেখা আমার বেশী একটা পড়া হয়নি কখনোই। লেখককে জানার চেয়ে বরং লেখকের বানানো গল্প জানতেই বেশী আগ্রহ ছিল এতোদিন। এ বইটি বোধহয় সেই 'অপপ্র্যাকটিস' এর অবসান ঘটিয়ে দিলো! এখন মনে show more হচ্ছে সুযোগ পেলেই আত্নজীবনী পড়ে ফেলবো! 'জীবন স্মৃতি' বইটি শুরু থেকে শেষ পর্যন্ত খুব আগ্রহ নিয়ে পড়েছি। অত্যন্ত সাবলীল ভাষায় লেখা একটি স্মৃতিকথা। জীবনের বিভিন্ন ছোটখাট ঘটনার ভেতর দিয়ে রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর দর্শনের যে শিক্ষা পেয়েছেন তা দারুণ ভাবে বর্ণনা করেছেন এখানে। ভালো লাগার জায়গাগুলো রীতিমত দাগ দিয়ে রাখলাম, ভবিষ্যতে আবার কখনো বের করে করে পড়বো হয়ত। জীবন থেকে পাওয়া দর্শন আর 'শার্পড পেন্সিল' এর মত পর্যবেক্ষণের 'দায়ে' পাওয়া বিভিন্ন শিক্ষাকে রবীন্দ্রনাথ চমৎকার সব উদাহরন দিয়ে ব্যাখ্যা করেছেন। দু’ একটি এখানে উল্লেখ করবার লোভ সামলাতে পারছিনাঃ

"তখনকার কালের য়ুরোপীয় সাহিত্যে নাস্তিকতার প্রভাবই প্রবল। তখন বেন্থাম, মিল ও কোঁত এর আধিপত্য। তাঁহাদেরই যুক্তি লইয়া আমাদের যুবকেরা তখন তর্ক করিতেছিলেন। য়ুরোপের এই মিল এর যুগ ইতিহাসের একটি স্বাভাবিক পর্যায়। মানুষের চিত্তের আবর্জনা দূর করিয়া দিবার জন্য স্বভাবের চেষ্টারুপেই এই ভাঙিবার ও সরাইবার প্রলয়শক্তি কিছুদিনের জন্য উদ্যত হইয়া উঠিয়াছিল। কিন্তু, আমাদের দেশে ইহা আমাদের পড়িয়া পাওয়া জিনিষ। ইহাকে আমরা সত্য রুপে খাটাইবার জন্য ব্যবহার করি নাই। ইহাকে আমরা শুদ্ধমাত্র একটা মানসিক বিদ্রোহের উত্তেজনা রুপেই ব্যবহার করিয়াছি। নাস্তিকতা আমাদের একটা নেশা ছিলো। এইজন্য তখন আমরা দুই দল মানুষ দেখিয়াছি। একদল ঈশ্বরের অস্তিত্ববিশ্বাসকে যুক্তি-অস্ত্রে ছিন্নভিন্ন করিবার জন্য সর্বদাই গায়ে পড়িয়া তর্ক করিতেন। পাখিশিকারে শিকারির যেমন আমোদ, গাছের উপরে বা তলায় একটা সজীব প্রাণী দেখিলেই তখনই তাহাকে নিকেশ করিয়া ফেলিবার জন্য শিকারির হাত যেমন নিশপিশ করিতে থাকে, তেমনি, যেখানে তাঁহারা দেখিতেন কোন নিরীহ বিশ্বাস কোথাও কোন বিপদের আশঙ্কা না করিয়া আরামে বসিয়া আছে, তখনই তাহাকে পাড়িয়া ফেলিবার জন্য তাঁহাদের উত্তেজনা জন্মিত।"

"গীতিকলার নিজেরই একটি বিশেষ প্রকৃতি ও বিশেষ কাজ আছে। গানে যখন কথা থাকে তখন কথার উচিত হয়না সেই সুযোগে গানকে ছাড়াইয়া যাওয়া, সেখানে সে গানেরই বাহনমাত্র। গান নিজের ঐশ্বর্যেই বড়; বাক্যের দাসত্ব সে কেন করিতে যাইবে?"

আরেকটি কথা না বললেই নয়। ভাষার মারপ্যাঁচে মানুষের চরিত্রের বিভিন্ন কালো দিকগুলোর এত চমৎকার নিন্দা আমি খুব কম পড়েছি! এ জায়গাগুলো পড়তে গিয়ে বারবার মনে হয়েছে, 'রবীন্দ্রনাথ এত ভালো লিখতেন কেন?' show less

The Home and the World is a classic Indian novel that focuses on a trio of characters living in the time of the Indian independence movement. Rotating between each of their perspectives, the novel does an excellent job of portraying each of their unique viewpoints, and, particularly when it comes to Nikhil and Sandip, playing them off each other in a way that allows the reader to ponder on their own beliefs. By the end of the book, I had a deep understanding of each character's ethical show more standpoint and how they disagreed on what should be done for the sake of the country despite all being in favor of independence.

I especially appreciated that Bimala was given so much focus. This in itself tells the reader that women are full people whose viewpoints matter. I also liked the development of Bimala's sister-in-law throughout the course of the story. In fact, she was my favorite character. But I also found myself questioning certain aspects of Bimala's characterization as I read. Most disturbing to me personally is her persistent belief that a "woman's heart... must worship in order to love". Is she attributing to all women something that applies only to herself? Is this a form of internalized sexism that real women experience or have experienced in the past? Or is it the result of a male author justifying the treatment of women in his society by claiming it aligns with their nature?

Unfortunately, I'm far from an expert when it comes to this cultural context, so I spent much of the book considering rather than concluding. I'm sure Indian readers have a far different reading experience, including appreciating aspects that went right over my head. As a US reader of the translation, I can only advise doing research on the Swadeshi movement and Indian history in general (if you were never taught much on the subject) before reading and say that, as I read, I found myself comparing the philosophies of these characters with others I'm familiar with and thinking about independence movements in general. I do believe books like this can provide readers with a deeper insight into humanity as well as specific insights into the history and culture of a particular country. I think it's a shame that my library system doesn't have a copy of this book, as I think it's an indication that not many people here are reading it.

Beyond that, I would be remiss to neglect the beauty of the writing itself. Although I read the English translation and therefore can't speak to the original, I can say that I highlighted more passages in this book than in any other I've read this year. The thoughts being communicated are striking in themselves. Each character expresses themselves so passionately and with such insight that I was truly impressed. This book undeniably deserves to be a classic, and I would have loved studying it in a university-level literature course. It's not difficult to understand without one, but I can feel how much depth there is to be explored and imagine how rewarding it would be.

Overall, I'm very glad I chose to read this book, and I hope this review will convince other readers to try it as well. If you love classics, you won't be disappointed. show less

In a Nutshell: A good collection of Tagore’s works, but the translation could have been better. A nice option for readers of character-oriented short fiction who are interested in Indian non-mythology classics.
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Rabindranath Tagore is, to date, the only Indian winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was a skilled poet and novelist, but his short fiction was a cut above the rest. The fourteen short stories in this collection were originally written in Bengali, show more and translated to English by various writers.

The biggest plus of this collection is seeing the strong command that Tagore has over his narrative. His stories don’t go the way we want or the way a typical happy-ending tale should proceed. Rather, he takes each story where he wants and stops, whether the ending is complete or not, whether the characters are happy or not, whether the readers get closure or not. This could go either way for a reader, but to those accustomed to literary fiction and slice of life stories, this kind of writing won’t present a big hurdle.

The main hurdle in enjoying this collection to the fullest is the shoddy translation, or rather, the lack of uniformity in the translation. As various writers have worked on the individual stories, there is no consistency to the writing or the vocabulary. Some stories are needlessly verbose while a few are too simple to seem like Tagore's work. Some use formal language while others are almost jargonistic. Some explain terms while others assume that the readers are knowledgeable enough. A couple of the stories break the fourth wall for no rhyme or reason. All this makes for an uneven experience, as some stories don’t hold up to the potential. Of course, this flaw is not to be assigned to Tagore’s writing.

Despite the mixed translation, the stories offers a comprehensive study of human behaviour. All the main narrators are flawed male protagonists who miss the obvious and jump to conclusions. The women’s role are somewhat limited to their being docile and sweet though there are some worthy exceptions as well.

The stories might have been contemporary in their time, but to a reader of 2024 and familiar with the country, the stories are clearly historical, with many of these issues no longer that prevalent at least in urban areas. However, human emotions and reactions don’t change with eras. The response of the characters to their circumstances is still realistic, though a tad melodramatic. The setting is Bengal, as is the case with Tagore’s works.

As always, I rated the stories individually. Of the fourteen stories, four stories touched the four-star mark while most of the rest hovered around three stars. I am sure the performance would have been better had I read this a couple of decades ago and had the translation been better. These were my top favourites:

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