Yeats described the universal appeal of Gitanjali in his role as:

1. Yeats wrote the introduction; he was not the translator (Tagore himself). 2. The introduction was central to the English-speaking reception. 3. Tagore and Yeats represent a key inter-traditions modernist encounter. _Source: Project Gutenberg #7164 — Tagore's Gitanjali (with W.B. Yeats's 1912 Introduction) — "W.B. Yeats' introduction praises the work's accessibility and universal appeal"_