'It dances today, my heart,
like a peacock it dances...
It soars to the sky with delight'
The poems of Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) are among the most haunting and tender in Indian and in world literature, expressing a profound and passionate human yearning. His ceaselessly inventive works deal with such subjects as the interplay between God and the world, the eternal and transient, and with the paradox of an endlessly changing universe that is in tune with unchanging harmonies. Poems such as 'Earth' and 'In the Eyes of a Peacock' present a picture of natural processes unaffected by human concerns, while others, as in 'Recovery - 14', convey the poet's bewilderment about his place in the world. And exuberant works such as 'New Rain' and 'Grandfather's Holiday' describe Tagore's sheer joy at the glories of nature or simply in watching a grandchild play.
William Radice's exquisite translations are accompanied by an introduction discussing Tagore's Bengali cultural background, his social, political and religious beliefs, and the lyric metres and verse forms he developed.
'An important book... William Radice's introduction is excellent' SUNDAY TIMES
