Selected Writings for Children

by Tagore, Rabindranath; Chaudhuri, Sukanta; Ghosh, Sankha

• ISBN13: 9780195658736
• ISBN10: 0195658736
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-04-04
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The poet and sage here appears as a writer for children in a number of veins - comic, whimsical, tender, serious. Among the variety of verses to be found here are delicate pieces originally written for an innovative Bengali textbook; delightful nonsense poetry and presentations of a child'sdesires and fantasies; and narrative and didactic poems as simple as they are sober and unpatronizing. These verses appear alongside a range of other writing: short plays and sketches; short stories; chatty tales where everyday life blends with fantasy and witty philosophizing. The collection isrounded off with a selection from Rabindranath's accounts of his own childhood. Most of theses pieces have never been translated before. Many of them would have been considered untranslatable. The book also contains a wealth of illustrations by Rabindranath himself, his circle and the members of theSantiniketan community. The book offers readers a rich insight into one of the most attractive yet least explored aspects of Rabindranath's life and imagination. More obviously, it constitutes a treasury of funny, colourful, thoughtful writing touched by the mind of an all-time genius.

Author Biography

Sukanta Chaudhuri is Professor of English at Jadavpur University, Calcutta
Sankha Ghosh is a noted Bengali poet and critic. He retired as Professor of Bengali from Jadavpur University.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(12)
At the Start	13	(2)
Grandfather's Holiday	15	(2)
Verses	17	(36)
Flowers	19	(2)
Our Little River	21	(2)
The Voyage	23	(2)
The Runaway City	25	(2)
Bhotan--Mohan	27	(1)
The Flying Machine	28	(2)
The Blaze	30	(1)
The Tiger	31	(2)
The Palm Tree	33	(2)
Sunday	35	(1)
The Unresolved	36	(2)
The Stargazer	38	(4)
The Hero	42	(4)
The Wise Brother	46	(2)
Big and Small	48	(3)
Astronomy	51	(2)
Stories	53	(28)
The Scientist	55	(5)
The King's Palace	60	(3)
The Big News	63	(3)
The Fairy	66	(3)
More-Than-True	69	(3)
The Rats' Feast	72	(3)
Wishes Come True	75	(6)
Plays	81	(32)
The Welcome	83	(4)
The Poet and the Pauper	87	(3)
The Ordeals of Fame	90	(8)
The Extended Family	98	(5)
The Free Lunch	103	(10)
That Man	113	(28)
More Verses	141	(54)
Moving Pictures	143	(5)
At Sixes and Sevens	148	(6)
The Invention of Shoes	154	(6)
The King's Son and the King's Daughter	160	(3)
Fragments	163	(4)
Bhajahari	167	(3)
The Builder	170	(3)
Madho	173	(3)
Two Bighas of Land	176	(3)
The Magic Stone	179	(2)
The Fake Fortress	181	(2)
The Captive Hero	183	(4)
The Representative	187	(4)
The Beggar's Bounty	191	(4)
My Childhood	195	(36)
Destruction	231	(4)
Explanations	235	(19)
Notes on Texts, Dates, and Publication	254	(5)
List of Illustrations	259