Questions tagged [bengali-literature]
Questions about works of literature written in the Bengali language, an Indo-Aryan language spoken in South Asia.
21
questions
6
votes
1answer
194 views
What are the lines in the Bhagavad Gita that Sandip is alluding to?
Rabindranath Tagore's novel 1916 The Home and the World consists of chapters told from the point of view of varying characters.
One of these is Sandip, who is a militant nationalist and an active ...
5
votes
1answer
47 views
What song is mai chhoro brajaki basari?
In Chapter VII of My Boyhood Days, Tagore describes how the narrator as a child became interested in music and singing. The "family friend Srikantha Babu was absorbed in music day and night":...
5
votes
1answer
210 views
What are the originals of the poems Tagore has translated from English into Bengali?
Rabindranath Tagore's 1886 collection of verse কড়ি ও কোমল / ka.Di o komal, "Sharps and Flats", includes a set of 15 or so poems under the general heading বিদেশী ফূলের গুচ্ছ / videshii ...
3
votes
0answers
34 views
Why does Tagore not consistently use ‘thou’ when addressing the supreme being in Gitanjali?
The large majority of poems in the English version of Tagore's Gitanjali address a supreme being. Tagore uses the pronouns "thou", "thee" and "thy" in almost all of these ...
3
votes
1answer
90 views
Does Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's novel Vishabriksha have a special meaning in Tagore's Chokher Bali?
Rabindranath Tagore's novel Chokher Bali makes a few references to Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's novel Vishabriksha or The Poison Tree, which was first published in 1873. (The passages below are quoted ...
4
votes
0answers
58 views
How does Irishness affect subject-formation and national identification in Kipling's *Kim* and Tagore's *Gora*?
Rudyard Kipling's Kim (1901) and Rabindranath Tagore's Gora (1910) have several parallels. Each is about an Irish orphan who passes for Indian. Each is also a Bildungsroman, portraying their ...
3
votes
0answers
109 views
What is the relationship between Tagore's poems and his song lyrics?
Rabindranath Tagore composed and wrote the lyrics for approximately 2,200 songs, collectively known as Rabindra Sangeet, "Rabindra music". These songs remain immensely popular in India and ...
5
votes
1answer
108 views
What is the significance of “southern” in Tagore's poem “A Hundred Years From Now”?
The Bengali poem "Aaji Hote Shata Barsha Pare" by Rabindranath Tagore, translated into English as "A Hundred Years Hence" or "A Hundred Years From Now", is a poem written ...
4
votes
1answer
179 views
What language was Tagore's “This Dog” written in?
Disclaimer: this is going to be a stupidly obvious question for anyone who speaks either Hindi or Bengali, but with zero knowledge of either language I can't really eke out an answer. Apologies if ...
3
votes
2answers
391 views
What is the original source of Rabindranath Tagore's “Endless Time”?
There is a poem "Endless Time" by Rabindranath Tagore as follows, which I interpret as being about a mortal human speaking to God, someone living a rushed human life and comparing it to God'...
2
votes
1answer
77 views
When did Tagore write “The Victory”?
The anthology The Definitive Tagore (Rupa Publishing, 2017) contains several works, including five short stories. The book does not contain any information on the author, nor dates of publication or ...
3
votes
1answer
50 views
Why would the indigo factory's steward be a messenger of death?
Chapter XI of My Boyhood Days (1940; ছেলেবেলা / Chhelebela in Bengali) contains the following passage:
The old indigo factory was still standing, with the river Padma in the distance. The zemindari ...
2
votes
1answer
98 views
Is Rabindranth Tagore talking about the actual wave nature of light here in Gitanjali?
The Nobel prize winning work Gitanjali by Rabdinranath Tagore quotes:
Lilies and jasmines surge up on the crest of the waves of light
Is he referring to the actual electromagnetic wave nature of ...
2
votes
1answer
47 views
In Tagore's “Along the Way”, who is the entity that the “your touch” is referring to?
Rabindranath Tagore's "Along the Way" several times refers to "your touch", such as in this first stanza:
As I walk along my way
I receive your touch
Now and then
But I don’t know ...
6
votes
2answers
68 views
Why do the prayers stop in Tagore's “A Dream”?
At the end of Rabindranath Tagore's "A Dream", there's one part (the ending) that goes like this:
At the gate
The lamp went out
In the temple
On the banks of Shipra
The prayers stopped.
...
2
votes
1answer
45 views
What does “raised waves in my mind” mean in Tagore's “At the End of the Day”?
In Rabindranath Tagore's "At the End of the Day", there's one stanza that goes like this:
To you I only pray –
Before I go let me know
Looking at the sky
Why mother earth so green
Gave me a ...
2
votes
1answer
348 views
Why was the narrator left alone on the shore in Tagore's “Sonar Tari”?
Rabindranath Tagore's poem 'Sonar Tari', written in Bengali, was translated into English as 'The Golden Boat'. The last stanza reads:
ঠাঁই নাই, ঠাঁই নাই! ছোট সে তরী
আমারি সোনার ধানে গিয়েছে ভরি’।
শ্রা...
3
votes
1answer
73 views
Who is Tagore's “Cruel Kindness” addressed to?
Rabindranath Tagore's "Cruel Kindness" is written in the second person, addressing a "you":
I seek so many things with all my heart
But you have saved me denying.
All through my ...
5
votes
2answers
246 views
Why does the narrator in Tagore's story call the Cabuliwallah's daughter “Parbati”?
In Rabindranath Tagore's "The Cabuliwallah", Rahmun, the eponymous Cabuliwallah, has come to Calcutta to make a living selling nuts and dried fruits from his native Afghanistan. In lieu of a ...
2
votes
0answers
15 views
What is the symbolism of the sun in this Bengali short story “The House of Wax”?
"The House of Wax" is a short story by Subodh Ghosh, translated from Bengali to English by Somrita Ganguly. It's about a man and woman who meet at a train station years after getting ...
2
votes
0answers
96 views
What does the poet Sukanta Bhattacharya mean when he said he has to make room for the newborn?
Why does the poet here want to clean up this squalid earth and make room for them when everybody in this world is running after wealth, glamour, glory, fame and egotistical nature's distortion?
Did ...
