সঞ্চয়িতা

Accumulation by Rabindranath Tagore

Introduction

I myself have undertaken the task of compiling the poems of Samukita. I would give it to others. Because, the history of the heart of poems is obvious to the one who writes poetry. In some places it is not easy for him to know for sure whether the poems have been brightened by external expression.

But, hoping to get a chance to speak on the occasion of this compilation, I put my hand to this work. I have felt for a long time about those who have published my poems that it would be an injustice to me to place in my books all the works of my youth which have only begun to move in fluent verse, which have not quite come within the bounds of poetry.

I remember that in an article criticizing my songs, the writer cited as examples of the lameness of my poetry, which have long shamed me by being indulged in printed books. They are expressions of an immature mind in an immature language. Some even love them, I am responsible for that disaster. I can't blame the essayist, because the crime I committed in writing is supported in print.

I have no complaint when I am charged with poems which I myself acknowledge. Friends say, want to preserve the course of history. I say, its history is from when writing became poetry. There can be many arguments about this, this is not the place to talk about it.

The fact that evening music, morning music and pictures and songs are still running in book-form can be called Kalatikraman-dosh. If a boy goes to the meeting of the chiefs and behaves like a boy, it is not good for the boys to tolerate it, nor for the chiefs. This is the same. There is no crime in those three books of poetry, only one crime - the writings did not take the form of poetry. Just as the chick in the egg has not become a bird - no one will blame it, but if it is called a bird it will be blamed.

For the sake of history-protection, I cannot accept any other writings from them except the few writings of those three books that have been published in this compilation. The same is true about Bhanusingha's designation. There's a lot of cool stuff in Kari and Komal, but it's in that episode that my poetic-geography starts to wake up.

The poetry of the rest of the books, starting from Manasi, is good and bad, but according to my standards they have crossed the threshold and passed into the category of poetry. As the print progressed, I panicked at the swelling of the volume.

Such compilations can never be complete. The state of mind changes, the attention varies. Injustice does not happen.

All the books of poetry written by me which are known to the readers for a long time, have been specially collected from them in this book. Those relatively unknown await fuller identification in due course.

Shri Rabindranath Tagore

Santiniketan,

Paush 1338