Thoughts (1890) is Tagore's first mature poetry collection. The content can be roughly divided into five categories: love poems, natural scenery poems, social theme poems, religious mystery poems, and poems that illustrate philosophy with natural phenomena, historical stories or myths and legends. These five categories are also the main contents of Tagore's later poetry creation, but the emphasis is different in different periods. More importantly, this collection of poems presents a qualitative leap, which shows that Tagore's poetry creation has formed its own unique artistic style. The breadth of thought, beautiful lyricism and charm have impressed the most severe critics, who also believe that "this is a distinctive sign of his maturity." Tagore's democratic thought and humanitarian thought were formed in the process of rural life in the 1990s, and were reflected in his poetry creation. There are abundant harvests every year, including Zhou Jin collection (1894), colorful collection (1895) and bumper harvest collection (1896). Of the eight poems in Random Thoughts, except Broken Jade Collection, which is a motto poem, and Story Collection, which is a narrative poem, the other six are all beautiful lyric poems. As belinsky said, youth is "the best time for lyric poetry". At that time, Tagore was in his prime. He inherited the excellent tradition of Indian classical literature and the lyric poems of Bangladeshi folk poets in the Middle Ages, and created lyric poems with both national and personal characteristics, often with novel metaphors, far-reaching artistic conception, fantastic charm and thought-provoking. It is said that most of Tagore's early poems have distinct rhythm, harmonious rhyme and strict meter. Unfortunately, I don't know Bengali, so it's hard to taste the beauty of meter and music from the English version. Thanks to the poet, after the English version of Gitanjali came out, he went back to translate his early poems into English one after another, and arranged and published them one by one, such as Gardener's Collection, Crescent Moon Collection, Fruit Collection, Birds Collection and Wandering Thoughts Collection. Mr. Liu Jian pointed out in the article "On Tagore's Early Poetry Creation": "The relationship between these English poetry collections and Bangladeshi original texts can be taken as an example. Most of the poems in The Gardener's Collection are translated from Bengali poetry collections in the 1990s, such as Moment Collection, Dream Collection, Zhou Jin Collection and Colorful Collection. Apart from some English poems improvised by the poet 19 16 during his visit to Japan, a considerable part of Birds was selected and translated from Broken Jade Collection. The situation in "You Siji" is similar. " On this basis, most of the poems included in this Selected Lyrics of Tagore are selected from the above English versions, with the lyrics of life and love in The Gardener's Collection as the main part, and philosophical poems such as Birds' Collection as the consideration, and some story poems, namely narrative poems, are consciously selected and translated from the Fruit Collection to get a glimpse of Tagore's early poems.
Gitanjali is a masterpiece of Tagore's mid-term poetry creation. Krishna Kribarani said in her Tagore biography: "Robin Delanat started her life as an optimistic and cheerful prince, and endured all kinds of pains and sufferings, parting and insults, struggles and blows at home and abroad in the first decade of this century. All this was finally merged and purified in those lyric poems, which gushed from his repressed and perfect mind in1909-10, and was collected and published in a collection of poems named Gitanjali in 19 10. He later selected 5 1 from this 157 poem and put it into the English version of Chittaglia, which made him famous all over the world. " Tagore himself translated this translation into one English song after another. He himself said, "Once upon a time, an emotional breeze aroused joy and interest in my heart; Now, I don't know why I am experiencing it anxiously through other languages. " It can be seen that Tagore's translation is a kind of re-experience and re-creation. Some scholars believe that the English version is sometimes compressed or abridged, which makes it fragmented and loses the beauty of the original Bengali language. This kind of comment is somewhat reasonable, but it is also too much. After all, poets know their own poems best, but their translation is vivid. He re-experienced and created that kind of thought and emotion, and did not stick to the transplantation of form. It is said that the poet's own translation of Gitanjali was sent to Ye Zhi through Rosenstand. Ye Zhi was fascinated as soon as he read the manuscript of this poem. He said: "These lyric poems ... show a world that I have dreamed of in my life with their thoughts. However, a highly cultural work of art looks very much like a plant growing in ordinary soil, just like grass or rushes. "Ye Zhi made some unique text retouching on the translated manuscript. 19 12 10 In October, when the Indian Institute in London published the first edition of Chittaglia, Ye Zhi wrote a "preface" specially for the poems, although the first edition only printed 750 copies. E. Pound, a great poet, attended a gathering of poets and writers in Ye Zhi in July and listened to Ye Zhi recite Tagore's lyrics. He found that Ye Zhi was "excited by the appearance of a great poet, a poet greater than any of us." Pound commented afterwards, "This profound and peaceful spirit is overwhelming. We suddenly discovered our new Greece. Just like the sense of stability of Europe's return before the Renaissance, it made me feel a sense of silence accompanied by the roar of our machines. " "I found an extremely common emotion in these poems, which reminds people of many things that are often overlooked in the troubles of our western life, in the hustle and bustle of cities, in the screams of shoddy literary works, and in the whirlpool of advertisements ..." "If there are any flaws in these poems-I don't think they tend to be divorced from ordinary readers, they are really deified. "
19 13 years1kloc-0/month, Tagore won the Nobel Prize in Literature for "Gitanjali". Before Tagore won the prize, the Swedish Academy Science Award went through some arguments. Werner von Heidenstam, a Swedish poet at that time, strongly recommended: "I read these poems and was deeply moved. I don't remember whether I have read such beautiful lyrics in twenty years. I really don't know how long I enjoyed them, just like taking a sip of cool and fresh spring water. In each of their thoughts and feelings, they all show the passion and purity of love, the clarity of mind, the beauty of style and the passion of nature, all of which are integrated into one, revealing a complete, profound and rare spiritual beauty. His works have no disputes, no sharp things, no hypocrisy, no arrogance or inferiority. If a poet can have these qualities at any time, then he is qualified to win the Nobel Prize. He is a Tagore poet. " Laxness, an Icelandic novelist, was only fifteen when Tagore won the prize. This great writer, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1955, recalled Tagore's influence in that year, and said, "This strange, subtle and distant voice immediately entered the depths of my young mental ear. Since then, I have been feeling its existence in my heart. Like western readers, the image and fragrance of Gitanjali have produced a beautiful flower-like influence in China that we have never heard of. Because of its great influence, many poets have carried out new experiments when creating prose poems. " Although China is in the East, the situation when Tagore's poems were first introduced into China was somewhat similar to that of Scandinavian countries.
Chittaglia is the peak of Tagore's mid-term poetry creation, so the poem Selected Poems of Tagore's Lyrics has a large number and a large proportion. Mr. Shi Zhen knows Bengali. According to her investigation and study, the two English versions of A Lover's Gift and The Ferry Man are mainly selected from Ode to Religion, Yu Hong Ji, The Ferry Man Ji, Song Garland, Gitanjaly and Moment Ji, which belong to the middle stage of creation, so I will start with these two versions. Tagore said at the beginning of Firefly Collection: "Firefly Collection originated from my trip to China and Japan: people often ask me to write my thoughts on fans and silk." He arrived in Japan in May 19 16 and stayed for three months. He wrote in his diary: "The hearts of these people are as quiet as a clear stream and as quiet as a lake. Some poems I have heard are like beautiful paintings, not songs. " He also quoted a haiku as an example, in which a frog jumped into an ancient pond. His poems are obviously influenced by Japanese haiku. Some people think that "these poems are not of high literary value", but I have a preference, so I also selected and translated some. Yu Hong Ji is translated from the English version of aurobindo Bos, a student of Tagore, and more poems are selected. First of all, he translated from Bengali word for word. Unlike Tagore's own translation, he was not free to create, compress or abridge. Many poems in Picking Fruits, Gifts for Lovers and Crossing are selected from Honghu Collection, but I didn't choose one in the capital. If I feel it necessary to translate some poems, I will translate them from the English version of Bos to show readers how Tagore's poems are written in Bengali. For example, the first song of A Lover's Gift is about the Taj Mahal, which is short and simple. Now the selected translation is the seventh song of Yu Hongji, which is several times longer, and the dozens of lines near the end are obscure. The second is to consider from the ideological content. According to Bos, Tagore wrote most of the poems in Yu Hongji during the First World War. Tagore said in a letter to a friend: "The feelings aroused in my heart when I wrote Yu Hongji still live in my heart today. They flew in like swans, flying from the poet's heart to the unknown world like swans, with an indescribable, impatient and restless feeling. ..... Their wings not only broke the midnight silence, but also awakened the infinite voices in my heart-this is the real meaning ... So I named this collection of poems "Yu Hong Ji" ... Maybe there is an invisible internal connection that connects these poems. ..... my inner thoughts are not just about war. ..... During the war, I was called to attend the friendship celebration of the four seas brothers ... I feel that human nature has reached a crossroads-the past has become the past, the night is coming to an end, and after death and pain, a red dawn of the new century is coming. Therefore, for an obvious reason, my heart is very excited! " Tagore's thought developed to a turning point, and he gradually moved closer to romain rolland. romain rolland held high the banner of "transcending war" and preached brotherhood and internationalism. He himself made it very clear: "The initial development of this feeling in my heart has been expressed in Yu Hongji. For a while, I groped on the vague road that invited me to go. Under this emotional impulse, although I didn't realize it at that time, these poems came into being. These poems, like many flags, mark my way to travel. It was just an emotion at that time, and the expression in the poem was not clear. Today, it has become a firm understanding, and I have achieved a clear goal with this understanding. " Tagore's own words explained to me the reasons for choosing several poems in Yu Hong Ji, which also helped us to understand and taste these poems.
Generally speaking, in the third stage, with Tagore's vigorous participation in political activities, his poetry creation has changed from content to form, mainly manifested in impassioned tone, patriotism and humanitarianism, and a sense of justice against colonialism, militarism and fascism. Mr. Ji Xianlin thinks that Tagore's poetry has both a "light wind and moon" side and a "glaring king kong" side. There are many people before the prophase and metaphase, and there are many people after the anaphase. After the poet died, his former friend Krishna Kribarani compiled a collection of poems with 130 poems. The editor's intention seems to focus on Tagore's "King Kong Glare" and his generous remarks. According to the four periods, Tagore's poems are divided into four series, namely (1) 1-57 poems (1886-1914); (2) 58-87 songs (1916-1927); (3) 88- 1 12 ( 1928- 1939); (4)113-130 songs (1940-194/year). That staging is obviously very different from the general early, middle and late staging. The specific records are as follows: first, it is for researchers' reference; second, it can at least calculate which poems were written in which years. From this collection of poems, we can see that these two factors, namely "the breeze and the bright moon" and "the glare of King Kong", exist in Tagore's poetry creation in any period, but only one factor dominates in a certain period. Tagore's Selected Poems selects many political lyrics from the poems edited by Krishna Kribarani. It also focuses on the selected translations of "Glare at King Kong" in different periods to supplement the selected translations in "The Gardener's Collection" and "Chittaglia". Series (2), (3) and (4) of poetry collections are basically Tagore's later poems, so it is more important to show the characteristics of Tagore's political lyrics in his later years. By the way, Tagore's lyrics are a little obscure, but some of them are also obscure. I dare not choose or translate them, even though the political lyrics that people often say are basically translated.