Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) is India's greatest modern poet and the most brilliant creative genius produced by the Indian Renaissance. As well as poetry, he wrote songs, stories and novels, plays, essays, memoirs and travelogues. He was both a restless innovator and a superb craftsman, and the Bengali language attained great beauty and power in his hands. As a poet, novelist, musician, and playwright, Tagore reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As author of Gitanjali and its 'profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse', he became Asia's first Nobel laureate by winning the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature. Tagore denounced the British Raj and supported the Indian Independence Movement. His efforts endure in his vast canon and in the institution he founded, Visva-Bharati University. Two Tagore songs are the national anthems of Bangladesh and India: 'Amar Shonar Bangla' and 'Jana Gana Mana'. Ketaki Kushari Dyson's acclaimed edition of his poetry, I Won't Let You Go: Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 1991; second enlarged edition, 2010), was a Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation.

'Dyson has succeeded in these new translations in restoring a sense to the reader of Tagore's real and remarkable genius as a poet. Short of learning Bengali one does not see how our sense of him as a poet could be bettered than it is by reading her versions. Her own skills and her own personality of course play a large part - One has the feeling of hearing Tagore's voice, as one hears that of any other great poet - an excellent end glossary of technical terms - if any translation can put Tagore back on the map where he belongs, this one should do it.' - Poetry Review. 'In her effort to lift Tagore's persona out of the shadows of mysticism, and present the poet his rightful place in the realm of contemporary poetry, Ketaki Kushari Dyson surpasses her aim - For all those who value good poetry, the book delivers more than it promises. It is vintage Tagore - It is not often that one comes across work of such calibre - ' - The Indian P.E.N. (Bombay) 'Among the English translations available of Tagore's poetry, Ketaki Kushari Dyson's selection I Won't Let You Go perhaps captures more successfully than any other the sensuous Bengaliness of Tagore's works, and the particularity of the weather, both inner and outer, in which the poems exist.' - London Review of Books.

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) is India's greatest modern poet and the most brilliant creative genius produced by the Indian Renaissance. As well as poetry, he wrote songs, stories and novels, plays, essays, memoirs and travelogues. He was both a restless innovator and a superb craftsman, and the Bengali language attained great beauty and power in his hands. As a poet, novelist, musician, and playwright, Tagore reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As author of Gitanjali and its 'profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse', he became Asia's first Nobel laureate by winning the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature. Tagore denounced the British Raj and supported the Indian Independence Movement. His efforts endure in his vast canon and in the institution he founded, Visva-Bharati University. Two Tagore songs are the national anthems of Bangladesh and India: 'Amar Shonar Bangla' and 'Jana Gana Mana'. Ketaki Kushari Dyson's acclaimed edition of his poetry, I Won't Let You Go: Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 1991; second enlarged edition, 2010), was a Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation.

'Dyson has succeeded in these new translations in restoring a sense to the reader of Tagore's real and remarkable genius as a poet. Short of learning Bengali one does not see how our sense of him as a poet could be bettered than it is by reading her versions. Her own skills and her own personality of course play a large part - One has the feeling of hearing Tagore's voice, as one hears that of any other great poet - an excellent end glossary of technical terms - if any translation can put Tagore back on the map where he belongs, this one should do it.' - Poetry Review. 'In her effort to lift Tagore's persona out of the shadows of mysticism, and present the poet his rightful place in the realm of contemporary poetry, Ketaki Kushari Dyson surpasses her aim - For all those who value good poetry, the book delivers more than it promises. It is vintage Tagore - It is not often that one comes across work of such calibre - ' - The Indian P.E.N. (Bombay) 'Among the English translations available of Tagore's poetry, Ketaki Kushari Dyson's selection I Won't Let You Go perhaps captures more successfully than any other the sensuous Bengaliness of Tagore's works, and the particularity of the weather, both inner and outer, in which the poems exist.' - London Review of Books.

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) is India's greatest modern poet and the most brilliant creative genius produced by the Indian Renaissance. As well as poetry, he wrote songs, stories and novels, plays, essays, memoirs and travelogues. He was both a restless innovator and a superb craftsman, and the Bengali language attained great beauty and power in his hands. As a poet, novelist, musician, and playwright, Tagore reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As author of Gitanjali and its 'profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse', he became Asia's first Nobel laureate by winning the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature. Tagore denounced the British Raj and supported the Indian Independence Movement. His efforts endure in his vast canon and in the institution he founded, Visva-Bharati University. Two Tagore songs are the national anthems of Bangladesh and India: 'Amar Shonar Bangla' and 'Jana Gana Mana'. Ketaki Kushari Dyson's acclaimed edition of his poetry, I Won't Let You Go: Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 1991; second enlarged edition, 2010), was a Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation.

'Dyson has succeeded in these new translations in restoring a sense to the reader of Tagore's real and remarkable genius as a poet. Short of learning Bengali one does not see how our sense of him as a poet could be bettered than it is by reading her versions. Her own skills and her own personality of course play a large part - One has the feeling of hearing Tagore's voice, as one hears that of any other great poet - an excellent end glossary of technical terms - if any translation can put Tagore back on the map where he belongs, this one should do it.' - Poetry Review. 'In her effort to lift Tagore's persona out of the shadows of mysticism, and present the poet his rightful place in the realm of contemporary poetry, Ketaki Kushari Dyson surpasses her aim - For all those who value good poetry, the book delivers more than it promises. It is vintage Tagore - It is not often that one comes across work of such calibre - ' - The Indian P.E.N. (Bombay) 'Among the English translations available of Tagore's poetry, Ketaki Kushari Dyson's selection I Won't Let You Go perhaps captures more successfully than any other the sensuous Bengaliness of Tagore's works, and the particularity of the weather, both inner and outer, in which the poems exist.' - London Review of Books.