Gitanjali was translated into English from the pen of the famous Indian poet and writer Rabindranath Tagore. Being translated from Bengali into English, Gitanjali is a collection of religious poems, and thus all of them convey the unseen essence of the poet and a number of philosophical views. This translation was instrumental in bringing out the works of Tagore before the world and he got the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913. This has remained one of the most important contributions to world literature.

Returning to Bengal in 1910, Tagore himself translated Gitanjali into English from 1912. That he was so familiar with the points of the poems, he was able to put out the translation with strength, spirituality, and lyricism intact. The English version, titled Gitanjali Song Offerings, therefore was not an exact rendering of word in word. But it was the essence of it which was translated and the feeling of the actual poetic book translated from Bengali seems to be well understood and presented to those who do not understand or read Bengali.

This work got on when William Rothenstein, an artist of Britain and a personal friend of Rabindranath Tagore assisted in getting the book published in England. Then, Rothenstein undertook to specially bring the work to the notice of such acknowledged literary minds as W. B. Yeats. Yeats was impressed by the soulfulness and even therapeutically-boarding nature of Gitanjali, so he wrote the preface to the English language edition of these works of Tagore, which helped to make a real breakthrough in recognition of the work in the West.

This paper discusses how Gitanjali, translated by Tagore, enabled him to close the cultural divide between the East and West. Thus, readers of all nations responded to the main concepts of divinity, human kinship, and the unity of the world. This special talent for translating the most mundane or profound of expressions into thoughts that are timeless and timeless, yet personal and simple, made his translation a classic.

Even today Gitanjali transcends many readers in the world and brings out the poet-translator that Rabindranath Tagore was. His English translation also helped him to achieve international fame and helped Indian literature to search for the place which it actually deserves.

Conclusion

This paper shows that Tagore’s English version of Gitanjali was a great work that went way beyond language and cultural barriers. It was Tagore’s critical achievement to preserve in English the sincerity of the spiritual experience and the rhythm of the poetic word of Bengali literature. His endeavours made him to be a recipient of the noble price besides laying the foundation on how the east and the west could intermingle. The collection called Gitanjali remains one of the most outstanding works in literature today as well as in history; this work is the vivid proof of Tagore’s talent which would always make people united by means of words.