by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941)
Translation by Marie Luise Gothein (1863 - 1931)
On the day when death will knock at thy...
Language: English  after the Bangla (Bengali)
Available translation(s): GER
On the day when death will knock at thy door, what wilt thou offer to him? Oh, I will set before my guest the full vessel of my life; I will never let him go with empty hands. All the sweet vintage of all my autumn days and summer nights, all the earnings and gleanings of my busy life, will I place before him at the close of my days when death will knock at my door.
About the headline (FAQ)
Authorship:
- by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in Gitanjali, no. 90, first published 1912 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in Bangla (Bengali) by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in গীতাঞ্জলি (Gitanjali), no. 90 [text unavailable]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Josef Alexander (1907 - 1992), "On the day", 1973 [ soprano, harpsichord, and percussion ], from Gitanjali, no. 9 [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Alden Carpenter (1876 - 1951), "On the day when death will knock at thy door", published 1914 [ voice and piano ], from Gitanjali (Song Offerings), no. 2, New York, G. Schirmer [sung text checked 1 time]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in Finnish (Suomi), a translation by Helmi Krohn (1871 - 1967) ; composed by Erkki Gustaf Melartin.
- Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
- Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
- Also set in French (Français), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Henri-Pierre Poupard, as Henri Sauguet.
- Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
- Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Marie Luise Gothein (1863 - 1931) , first published 1914 ; composed by Stefan Wolpe.
- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Thomas Schubert (b. 1961) , copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission [an adaptation] ; composed by Thomas Schubert.
- Also set in Swedish (Svenska), a translation by Nino (Hjalmar) Runeberg (1874 - 1934) ; composed by Erkki Gustaf Melartin.
Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Thomas Schubert) , copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission [an adaptation]
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Geoffrey Wieting
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 77
An dem Tage, da der Tod
Language: German (Deutsch)  after the English
An dem Tage, da der Tod an deine Türe klopfen wird, was willst du ihm bieten? Ich will vor meinen Gast das volle Gefäß meines Lebens setzen - ich werde ihn nicht mit leeren Händen lassen! Die ganze süße Kelter meines Herbstes,meiner Sommernächte, die ganze Ernte und der Gewinn des geschäftigen Lebens, das breite ich vor ihn am Schluß meiner Tage, wenn der Tod an mein Tor klopft.
Authorship:
- by Marie Luise Gothein (1863 - 1931), first published 1914 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in English by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in Gitanjali, no. 90, first published 1912
Based on:
- a text in Bangla (Bengali) by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in গীতাঞ্জলি (Gitanjali), no. 90 [text unavailable]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Stefan Wolpe (1902 - 1972), "An dem Tage, da der Tod", 1926 [voice and piano], from Neun Vertonungen aus Gitanjali, no. 2. [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
Researcher for this page: Ferdinando Albeggiani
This text was added to the website: 2009-11-16
Line count: 8
Word count: 68