A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE TRANSFORMATION IN TRANSLATION OF RABINDRANATH TAGORE'S GITANJALI POEMS

Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali, or Song Offerings (1912), achieved international recognition and a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913, translated by the author himself from Bengali to English. However, the English version is more prosaic and differs significantly from the original Bengali verse. The translation process underwent significant challenges, in translation of the beautiful and distinct work to cater to the taste of the western audience. This paper examines the three primary problems faced in translating Gitanjali, mainly the loss of intrinsic musicality and metrical structure, problems in conveying specific cultural and philosophical ideas and Tagore's self-translation in a colonial context. By analyzing the "two Gitanjalis"—the original Bengali and the English Song Offerings—this study focuses on the "untranslatability" of certain poetic elements and the impact of translation on the work's global recognition and interpretation.