Rabindra Rachnavali

I am gratified to hear from you that you are convinced that I am a poet because I have a beautiful grey beard.

Excerpted from Talks in China

I am gratified to hear from you that you are convinced that I am a poet because I have a beautiful grey beard. But my vanity will remain unsatisfied until you know me from my voice that is in my poems.

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I hope that this may make you want to learn Bengali some day. I hope yonder rival poet, taking notes opposite me, will consider this seriously. I will admit him into my class and help him so far as I am able.

Now I must also let you know something of our Art movement. It was started by my nephew Abanindranath, and is full of promise. If my friend, Nandalal, over there, who is a great artist, would deign to speak he would let you know how it is growing in vitality and how its influence is spreading far and wide.

In regard to music, I claim to be something of a musician myself. I have composed many songs which have defied the canons of respectable orthodoxy and good people are disgusted at the impudence of a man who is audacious only because he, is untrained.

But I persist, and God forgives me because I do not know what I do. Possibly that is the best way of doing things in the sphere of art. For I find that people blame me, but also sing my songs, even if not always correctly.