Rabindranath Tagore - G i t a n j a l i

This masterpiece of timeless poetry has been my constant companion for many years. These prayers and contemplative poems get to the core of things with grace and purity. The simple beauty and crystal clear spiritual insight of this work lifts it high above narrow-minded dogmatism or nebulous esoteric dreams. The poems are addressed to a personal God, the word 'You' is found in almost every stanza. Although rooted in Hindu culture and not explicit Christian, 'Gitanjali' to me has been a faithful prayer guide to apply my heart to Jesus Christ, yet I understand and fully respect its universal character for every lover of spiritual poetry.

Like the old King James Bible translation, the 1912 version of 'Gitanjali' by W.B.Yeats contains many words like 'Thou, thine, art, hast, thy…etc.' I've carefully replaced these words with contemporary vocabulary like 'You, yours, are… etc.' Maybe this will help a little to read these poems more easily and not to be distracted by unfamiliar language.

'Gitanjali' is in the public domain according to the Berne convention since January 1st 1992.
Revised September 2008.

Gitanjali on the web: Tagore's Gitanjali - School of Wisdom - University of Virginia

Download the revised full text version as:

Acrobat Reader PDF file ( 87 kb)

MS Word DOC file ( 160 kb )

Simple text TXT file ( 64 kb)

Microsoft Reader LIT file ( 164 kb )

Or read 'Gitanjali' online at Jonsong.

 

Poems set to music ( Stream or download MP3 files with high quality 192 kbps)

Poem 1 : You have made me endless
( September 2008, 4:49, 6.6 mb )

 

Poem 2 : When you command me to sing
( September 2008, 5:18, 7.3 mb )

 

To be continued...