Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was a renowned Bengali poet, philosopher, musician, and polymath from India. He was the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 for his collection of poems, “Gitanjali” (Song Offerings). Tagore’s literary works encompass a wide range of themes, including spirituality, nature, love, and the human experience. His writing is characterized by its lyrical beauty, profound insights, and deep emotional resonance. Here are a few of his poems translated into English:
Rabindranath Tagore Poems
Where the Mind is Without Fear:
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
Rabindranath Tagore The Gardener Poems:
The gardener’s work is never done,
For his garden forever needs care.
Yet he tends to his flowers with love and toil,
Knowing the beauty they’ll share.
He plants the seeds with hope and care,
Nurtures them with gentle rain.
With patience, he waits for them to bloom,
Their vibrant colors to sustain.
The gardener knows the cycles of life,
The changing seasons that pass.
He sees the blossoms and leaves that fall,
And embraces each stage, alas.
For in the garden’s tapestry,
He finds life’s lessons to learn.
A mirror to the human heart,
In its cycles, we discern.
So as the gardener tends his plot,
With devotion and love so true,
We too must nurture our own lives,
And let our spirits bloom anew.
The Song of the Rain: Rabindranath Tagore Poems
I am dotted silver threads dropped from heaven
By the gods. Nature then takes me, to adorn
Her fields and valleys.
I am beautiful pearls, plucked from the
Crown of Ishtar by the daughter of Dawn
To embellish the gardens.
When I cry the hills laugh;
When I humble myself the flowers rejoice;
When I bow, all things are elated.
The field and the cloud are lovers
And between them I am a messenger of mercy.
I quench the thirst of one;
I cure the ailment of the other.
The voice of thunder declares my arrival;
The rainbow announces my departure.
I am like earthly life, which begins at
The feet of the mad elements and ends
Under the upraised wings of death.
I emerge from the heart of the sea
Soar with the breeze. When I see a field in
Need, I descend and embrace the flowers and
The trees in a million little ways.
I touch gently at the windows with my
Soft fingers, and my announcement is a
Welcome song. All can hear, but only
The sensitive can understand.
The heat in the air gives birth to me,
But in turn I kill it,
As woman overcomes man with
The strength she takes from him.
I am the sigh of the sea;
The laughter of the field;
The tears of heaven.
So with love —
Sighs from the deep sea of affection;
Laughter from the colorful field of the spirit;
Tears from the endless heaven of memories.
Unending Love:
In life after life, in age after age, forever.
In life after life, in age after age, forever.
Whenever I hear old chronicles of love, its age-old pain,
Its ancient tale of being apart or together.
As I stare on and on into the past, in the end you emerge,
Clad in the light of a pole-star, piercing the darkness of time.
You become an image of what is remembered forever.
You and I have floated here on the stream that brings from the fount.
At the heart of time, love of one for another.
We have played alongside millions of lovers, shared in the same
Shy sweetness of meeting, the same distressful tears of farewell –
Old love, but in shapes that renew and renew forever.
Today, it is heaped at your feet, it has found its end in you.
The love of all man’s days both past and forever:
Universal joy, universal sorrow, universal life.
The memories of all loves merging with this one love of ours –
And the songs of every poet past and forever.
Rabindranath Tagore Poems The Banyan Tree:
O traveler, shed not tears over the banyan tree,
For it has flourished for ages, bearing many storms and seasons.
Its long-reaching branches tell tales of endurance,
A testament to life’s undying reasons.
The Flower-School:
I would ask for still more, if I had the sky with all its stars,
And the world with its endless riches; but I would be content with the smallest corner of this earth if only she were mine.
With a flower for a teacher and the sky for a schoolmaster, I would teach; I would teach all the children of the world the ways of the world.
But I would teach them not the alphabet, but the beautiful words of life, and I would teach them how to speak the language of the flowers.
The stars would be their guide, and they would learn from them the lessons of truth and love. They would understand that life is short, but that the soul can live forever.
They would learn that all things in the world are connected, and that the smallest flower is as important as the largest star.
And they would learn that the most important thing in life is not to have, but to give; not to possess, but to share.
So, with the sky as my schoolmaster and the flowers as my teachers, I would teach the children of the world the lessons of life and love.
Let My Country Awake: Rabindranath Tagore Poems
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action—
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
The Sunset of the Century:
I was leaving behind me my watchword, “Love’s Lordship”;
I thought it was already stored in the treasury of hearts.
I thought it would shine by its own light.
But it was eclipsed by my departure.
The wheel of time is lame and its spokes are ill-fitted;
And mind, when it meets with impediments, is perplexed.
The strong have power to call their way their own;
The weak have not a place to lay their head.
It was an error to think my wealth could stand by me;
Gold leaves me in the dark, and the sword shines.
Where is the true sovereignty?
There is nothing to crown with.
It is the callous rule that is crowned, and it is crowned alone.
It is the callous rule that comes to a tragic end,
Not the sovereignty of Truth.
The sunset of the century is upon us.
The world, weary with its greed, is crouching in a corner.
The darkness in the heart is growing deeper and deeper,
And its face is blackened with the smoke of the lamp of life.
I thought I could touch the sky with my wing;
I could not, though I flew from country to country.
I was depressed, and the world was dark in my absence.
The world will see me no more.
The stars in the firmament of time are extinguished one by one;
And life’s strength fades away, like a dying echo.
These poems offer a glimpse into the ethereal beauty and timeless wisdom that Tagore’s works are celebrated for. His writing continues to inspire and resonate with readers around the world, capturing the essence of the human experience and the interconnectedness of all life.
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