On May 7, 1861, in a large family in Calcutta, India, a baby boy was born. He was Rabindranath Tagore, the greatest modern Indian poet.
The Tagore family originally belonged to the Brahman sect, but was later ostracized for violating religious rules. In the 1690s, a tribesman named Penjonon Kuchari led his family to settle in a small fishing village on the banks of the Ganges. This small fishing village later became the prosperous city of Calcutta. By the generation of Tagore's grandfather Dalganad, the Tagore family reached its most prosperous era. Tagore's grandfather *** had three sons, and Tagore's father was his eldest son. My grandfather was a famous local entrepreneur, philanthropist and social reformer. His spirit influenced generations of Tagore family members. Tagore's father was an enlightened man who lived a luxurious and corrupt life in his early years. Later, he turned to the pursuit of truth and actively engaged in religious reform. He and his wife *** gave birth to 15 children. Due to his influence, many of these children have left their names in the modern history of India. For example, the eldest son is a philosopher and has conducted innovative experiments in poetry; the second son is a Sanskrit scholar. Can write in English and Bengali; the third son is an educator; the fifth son is very accomplished in poetry, drama, music, and painting; the fifth daughter is the first female writer in the history of Bangladesh. Tagore was his fourteenth child and eighth son.
Because his father did not take care of the housework, their family was not very wealthy when Tagore was born. Horses and cars existed only in name, but they could "eat bread and banana leaves" for breakfast. "Wrapped in butter" was already a "heavenly" enjoyment for Tagore. ("My Childhood") Because there were many children in the family, the mother could not take care of her son personally, so Tagore did not enjoy much maternal love in his childhood, but mainly stayed with the servants. These servants were versatile, some could recite the Indian epic "Ramayana", and some could compose folk songs. The enlightenment of Tagore's literature began at this time. But there are also some servants who are lazy and slanderous. In order to go drinking, a servant drew a circle on the ground with chalk, asked Tagore to stand in it, and then threatened him that this was a magic circle and that if he stepped out, he would be in trouble. Tagore stood inside obediently, never daring to go out, so he could only stare at the banyan tree in the distance in trance.
In fact, Tagore and other children in the family were not allowed to go out of the house, and did not even have the freedom to walk around the house. Sometimes he had to peek through the fence at the vibrant nature outside and imagine in his heart Facing the secrets contained in this mysterious nature, he suffered like a bird that longed for freedom but was locked in a birdcage. Regarding his childhood, what he most often thinks of is the mystery that fills life and the world: "Things that cannot be dreamed of are lurking everywhere. The first question that comes to mind every day is: When! Ah, when will we meet? What about it? It's like nature holds something in its fist and asks us with a smile: 'What do you think is in this? '" ("Memoirs")
Tagore is going to school. Before that, once he saw his older brother going to school. He cried and said: "I want to go too, I want to go too." The tutor warned him sternly: "You are going to go crying now." School, I'm afraid you will leave school crying one day!" This statement really came true. Tagore later humorously said that he had never heard a more accurate prediction in his life! Regarding school, his only impression was boring. Whether it was a Bangladeshi school or a British school, he felt equally mechanical and dull. Coupled with the harsh corporal punishment, little Tagore could not bear it and finally dropped out of school at the age of 14. . The family was disappointed, but there was nothing they could do.
But Tagore’s childhood was not without happy moments. First, when he was 8 years old, he composed a poem based on rhyme for the first time: "Immediately a lotus with fourteen-tone verses opened, and bees flew up. The distance between the poet and me began to disappear, It has been disappearing since then." ("My Childhood") The second is the coming-of-age ceremony hosted by his father when he was 12 years old; the third is traveling in the Himalayas with his father and writing about himself on the way. ’s first poetic drama.
Tagore himself said that from the age of 16 to 23, his life was extremely dissolute. Tagore's good fortune in growing up as an artist was, first of all, that he was at the center of the Bengal Renaissance at that time, and his family was at the center of this center. With suitable artistic soil and his own spirituality, the muse in his heart finally sang loudly. In February 1876, at the annual India Festival in Calcutta, the 15-year-old Rabindranath Tagore recited a patriotic poem in public, which was very popular. Later, the poem was published in a weekly magazine published simultaneously in Bengali and English. The poet was encouraged by this, and soon published a long story poem "Wild Flowers", which expressed the poet's praise of love and love for life. But it was also in this year that the poet experienced pain for the first time. On March 8 of this year, his mother passed away. He felt that something beautiful in his life was lost forever.