Customer Reviews

The Crescent Moon

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have read several of Tagore's works but nothing has ever touched me as deeply as the lines in these poems about children and their loves. The one on the death of a child is my favorite. I lost my own child with leukemia several years ago and thought the tears had all dried up but these touching words of this great poetic master found some still tender areas. If these poems are so very beautiful in their English translations, I can only guess what they must sound like in the original rhythmic and lyrical Bengali language. Thank you for allowing me to review and recommend this book

My mom read some of these poems to me as a child. When she was dying, I read them to her. She smiled when almost nothing made her smile. And then later in the process, they calmed her when nearly nothing else could calm her. These poems seem almost sacred to me.

This is one of the more exquisite texts of Nobel winner Tagore. The reader shoud be aware, though, that this one is an abridged edition where some of the allegedly more beautiful chapters are missing.

I am a lifelong devotee of Rabindranath Tagore (RNT), of whom I tell my children, "Human evolution reached its perfection when it created Tagore- the greatest human being ever to have lived on this earth." I stand behind this assertion.

With my Bengali background, indeed, I am fortunate to have been naturally exposed to the priceless life and works of Tagore. As Abby from LA writes- it is absolutely true that Tagore's Bengali creations surpass by far what is carried over to English. Sitting by Tagore's feet, I frequently regret that the entire world does not have access to the poems, songs, essays, drama and all other literary creations he left behind in Bengali.

The issue I have with this edition of The Crescent Moon (which RNT dedicated to Sturge Moore, Britain's poet-laureate nominee in RNT's time) is that on the cover, the name of Deepak Chopra, who has compiled this collection, is displayed more prominently than that of RNT himself. Sadly, this smacks of self-promotion, a common phenomenon in this age of crass commercialism and materialism, something RNT (similar to Thoreau in this country) spoke out stridently against throughout his life. Thus I justify the 4 stars.

As the correspondent from Mexico correctly observes, any seeker expecting to discover Tagore in the original, needs to find earlier, more pristine editions of the book (and others by RNT). I assume that Abby's Mom must have seen/felt and read Tagore from the original, and not from an edited product.