Rabindranath Tagore
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Today, we note the birth date of Rabindranath Tagore (May 7, 1861 – August 7, 1941), Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter.
He reshaped Bengali literature and music as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Author of the "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful" poetry of Gitanjali, he became in 1913 the first non-European and the first lyricist to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Tagore's poetic songs were viewed as spiritual and mercurial; however, his "elegant prose and magical poetry" remain largely unknown outside Bengal. He was a fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society.
Here are four poems in English translation by Rabindranath Tagore for your consideration:
A Hundred Years Hence
Who it is
With such curiosity
Reads my poems
A hundred years hence!
Shall I be able to send you
An iota of joy of this fresh spring morning
The flower that blooms today
The songs that the birds sing
The glow of today’s setting sun
Filled with my feelings of love?
Yet for a moment
Open up your southern gate
And take your seat at the window
Look at the far horizon
And visualize in your mind’s eye —
One day a hundred years ago
A restless ecstasy drifted from the skies
And touched the heart of this world
The early spring mad with joy
Knew no bounds
Spreading its restless wings
The southern breeze blew
Carrying the scent of flowers’ pollen
All on a sudden soon
They coloured the world with a youthful glow
A hundred years ago.
That day a young poet kept awake
With an excited heart filled with songs
With so much ardour
Anxious to express so many things
Like buds of flowers straining to bloom
One day a hundred years ago.
A hundred years hence
What young poet
Sings songs in your homes!
For him
I send my tidings of joy of this spring.
Let it echo for a moment
In your spring, in your heartbeats,
In the humming of the bees
In the rustling of the leaves
A hundred years hence.
--Rabindranath Tagore
______________________
At The End Of The Day
I know, this day will come to an end
At the end of the day
Wanly smiling
The dying sun will look at my face
Bidding me its last farewell.
The flute will play by the side of the way
The cattle will graze on the banks of the river
In the courtyard the children will play
And the birds will sing -
Still the day will come to an end.
To you I only pray –
Before I go let me know
Looking at the sky
Why mother earth so green
Gave me a call
Why the silence of the night
Told me the stories of the stars
Why the lights of the day
Raised waves in my mind –
This is what I pray.
When on this earth
The game of my life will be over
In a harmony may I stop my song
May I fill with fruits and flowers
The trays of the seasons.
May I see you in the light of my life
And give you my garland –
When I shall end my days on this earth.
--Rabindranath Tagore
_______________________
Freedom
Freedom from fear is the freedom
I claim for you my motherland!
Freedom from the burden of the ages, bending your head,
breaking your back, blinding your eyes to the beckoning
call of the future;
Freedom from the shackles of slumber wherewith
you fasten yourself in night's stillness,
mistrusting the star that speaks of truth's adventurous paths;
freedom from the anarchy of destiny
whole sails are weakly yielded to the blind uncertain winds,
and the helm to a hand ever rigid and cold as death.
Freedom from the insult of dwelling in a puppet's world,
where movements are started through brainless wires,
repeated through mindless habits,
where figures wait with patience and obedience for the
master of show,
to be stirred into a mimicry of life.
--Rabindranath Tagore
____________________-
Give Me Strength
This is my prayer to thee, my lord—-strike,
strike at the root of penury in my heart.
Give me the strength lightly to bear my joys and sorrows.
Give me the strength to make my love fruitful in service.
Give me the strength never to disown the poor or bend my knees before insolent might.
Give me the strength to raise my mind high above daily trifles.
And give me the strength to surrender my strength to thy will with love.
--Rabindranath Tagore