Gitanjali

Rabindranath Tagore · 1861–1941 · India (Bengal)

Originally Gitanjali (Bengali)

Why it matters

A cycle of devotional lyrics addressed to an unnamed divine 'you,' longing, surrender, and love folded into spare, hymn-like verse. Tagore's own English rendering of his Bengali poems won him the 1913 Nobel, literature's first for an Asian writer.

At a glance

Short, plainspoken devotional lyrics, though their spiritual register asks for unhurried, meditative reading.