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Rabindranath Tagore, affectionately known as Gurudev ("revered teacher"), was a poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, critic, scholar, educator, singer, actor, painter, and musician. A leading figure in the renaissance of Bengali literature, Tagore also made an invaluable contribution to children's literature in Bengali. In spite of being rooted in Indian culture, the works of Tagore, who, according to Albert Schweitzer, "belong[ed] not only to his people but to humanity,"I transcend the barriers of nationality, culture, religion, race, and time to establish a global communion through universalist ideas and to provide glimpses of primeval innocence through ordinary experiences.
Tagore's extensive oeuvre for children consists of poems, short stories, novels, songs, plays, and textbooks. However, his poetry is central to his vision of childhood. As a child, he was enchanted by Bengali nursery rhymes because of their appealing dance rhythms and oral quality, which he captures in his first poem for children, "Bristi pare tapur-tupur" (The rain falls pitter-patter). Ranging from long historical narratives to contemplative songs and nonsense rhymes to poems that express the spirit of love, freedom, and joy, Tagore's poems take young readers on interminable flights of the imagination, introduce them to the at times inexplicable realm of ideas, and hint at a mystical union with nature. These poems are widely read or sung in India (especially in Bengal) and in Bangladesh because of their lyric quality, zest for life, and spirit of inner peace.
Using elements of fantasy, fable, fairy tale, and myth, Tagore projects through melodious words and multiple moods-buoyant, serene, humorous, and pensive-his vision of"the universal man as the conglomerate embodiment of individual man:'2 The Crescent Moon (London: Macmillan, 1913) is the best representative collection of Tagore's poetry for children. Translated into English prose-poems by the poet himself, it includes thirty-five poems from his most celebrated work, Sisu (Child; 1903), and others from Kadi-o-Komal (Sharps and flats; 1886), Sonar Tari (Golden boat; 1894), Kshanika (The flitting one; 1900), and Gitimalya (String of songs; 1914). It also includes poems like "When and Why," "The Source,' and "On the Seashore" that were originally published in his Nobel Prize-winning Gitanjali (Song offerings; 1912). Another important title, The Child (London: Allen & Unwin, 1931), is a long poem originally written in English when Tagore visited Oberammergau...