For which collection of poems was Rabindranath Tagore awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913?
- A.Gora
- B.Gitanjali
- C.Chokher Bali
- D.Ghare Baire
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, Gitanjali. The Swedish Academy cited the profoundly sensitive and beautiful verse of Gitanjali, which Tagore had himself rendered into English as Song Offerings and published in 1912 with an introduction by W. B. Yeats; the prize made him the first Asian and the first non-European laureate in any Nobel category. Option A, Gora, is one of his major novels but had no part in the citation. Option C, Chokher Bali, is another of his novels, usually translated as A Grain of Sand. Option D, Ghare Baire, translated as The Home and the World, is the novel later filmed by Satyajit Ray. All three are Tagore's own works, which is what makes the question a trap: the examiner wants the single collection named in the award, and that is Gitanjali.
Read the full article: Nobel Prize in Literature: Laureates and Their Works
Practice Questions
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