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Tagore Album
Translations © by Bertram Kottmann
Song Cycle by Wendy Hiscocks (b. 1963)
View original-language texts alone: A Tagore Album
Light, my light, the world-filling light, the eye-kissing light, heart-sweetening light! Ah, the light dances, my darling, at the centre of my life; the light strikes, my darling, the chords of my love; the sky opens, the wind runs wild, laughter passes over the earth. The butterflies spread their sails on the sea of light. Lilies and jasmines surge up on the crest of the waves of light. The light is shattered into gold on every cloud, my darling, and it scatters gems in profusion. Mirth spreads from leaf to leaf, my darling, and gladness without measure. The heaven's river has drowned its banks and the flood of joy is abroad.
Authorship:
- by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in Gitanjali, no. 57, first published 1913
Based on:
- a text in Bangla (Bengali) by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in গীতাঞ্জলি (Gitanjali), no. 57
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Licht, mein Licht, das alle Welt erfüllt, das Auge küsst und Süße gießt ins Herz! Das Licht, mein Liebster, tanzt im Herzstück meines Lebens; es bringt hervor den Wohlklang meiner Liebe; der Himmel tut sich auf, der Wind hat freien Lauf, und über Welt und Erde geht ein Lachen. Die Falter hissen ihre Segel auf einem Meer aus Licht. Jasmin und Lilien wogen auf seinem Wellenkamm. Das Licht bricht golden sich an jeder Wolk’ und streut Juwelen aus verschwenderisch. Mein Liebster, Frohsinn springt von Blatt zu Blatt und Freude ohne Maßen. Und überflutet hat der Strom des Himmels seine Ufer, hat ausgesandt die Freudenflut.
Authorship:
- Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2014 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.
Bertram Kottmann.  Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de
If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
- a text in English by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in Gitanjali, no. 57, first published 1913
Based on:
- a text in Bangla (Bengali) by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in গীতাঞ্জলি (Gitanjali), no. 57
Go to the single-text view
This text was added to the website: 2014-06-23
Line count: 14
Word count: 104
Did you leave behind you your love, my heart; And miss peace through all your days? And is the path you followed lost and forgotten, Making your return hopeless? I go roaming listening to brooks' babble, To the rustle of leaves. And it seems to me that I shall find the way, That reaches the land of lost love Beyond the evening stars.
Authorship:
- by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in The Cycle of Spring
Go to the single-text view
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]My heart, the bird of the wilderness, has found its sky in your eyes: They are the cradle of the morning, they are the kingdom of the stars; My songs are lost in their depths. Let me but soar in that sky, in its lonely immensity! Let me but cleave its clouds and spread wings in its sunshine.
Authorship:
- by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in The Gardener, no. 31, first published 1913
Based on:
- a text in Bangla (Bengali) by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941) [text unavailable]
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Mein Herz, ein wilder Vogel, - in deinen Augen hat es seinen Himmel wohl gefunden. Sie sind's, in denen sich der Morgen wiegt, sie sind der Sterne Königreich; in ihren Tiefen haben meine Lieder sich verloren. Ach lass' in diesen Himmel mich entschweben, in seine einsame Unendlichkeit. Ach lass mich teilen sein Gewölk, in seinem Sonnenlicht die Flügel breiten.
Authorship:
- Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2015 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.
Bertram Kottmann.  Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de
If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
- a text in English by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in The Gardener, no. 31, first published 1913
Based on:
- a text in Bangla (Bengali) by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941) [text unavailable]
Go to the single-text view
This text was added to the website: 2015-06-28
Line count: 9
Word count: 59
In desperate hope I go and search for her in all the corners of my room; I find her not. My house is small and what once has gone from it can never be regained. But infinite is thy mansion, my lord, and seeking her I have to come to thy door. I stand under the golden canopy of thine evening sky and I lift my eager eyes to thy face. I have come to the brink of eternity from which nothing can vanish -- no hope, no happiness, no vision of a face seen through tears. Oh, dip my emptied life into that ocean, plunge it into the deepest fullness. Let me for once feel that lost sweet touch in the allness of the universe.
Authorship:
- by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), appears in Gitanjali, no. 87, first published 1912
Based on:
- a text in Bangla (Bengali) by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in গীতাঞ্জলি (Gitanjali), no. 87 [text unavailable]
Go to the single-text view
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Verzweifelt hoffend gehe ich umher und such’ nach ihr in allen Winkeln meines Heims - doch find sie nicht. Mein Haus ist klein, und was einst ging, kann niemals mehr sich finden ein. Dein Wohnsitz, Herr, allein ist endlos groß. Sie suchend, hab’ ich auch an deine Tür zu treten. Ich stehe unter deines Abendhimmels goldnem Baldachin und schau voll Ungeduld zu dir empor. Bis an die Schwelle der Unendlichkeit bin ich getreten, dahin, wo nichts entschwinden kann - nicht Hoffnung, Glück, auch nicht das Bild eines Gesichts, das ich durch Tränen sah. Ach, tauch mein leer geword’nes Leben ein in dieses Meer, senk es in seine tiefste Tiefe, seine ganze Fülle. Und lasse mich ein einzig’ Mal im endlos weiten All diese verlor’ne, zärtliche Berührung spüren.
Authorship:
- Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2014 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.
Bertram Kottmann.  Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de
If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
- a text in English by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), appears in Gitanjali, no. 87, first published 1912
Based on:
- a text in Bangla (Bengali) by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in গীতাঞ্জলি (Gitanjali), no. 87 [text unavailable]
Go to the single-text view
This text was added to the website: 2014-07-11
Line count: 16
Word count: 127
Let all the strains of joy mingle in my last song -- the joy that makes the earth flow over in the riotous excess of the grass, the joy that sets the twin brothers, life and death, dancing over the wide world, the joy that sweeps in with the tempest, shaking and waking all life with laughter, the joy that sits still with its tears on the open red lotus of pain, and the joy that throws everything it has upon the dust, and knows not a word.
Authorship:
- by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in Gitanjali, no. 58, first published 1912
Based on:
- a text in Bangla (Bengali) by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in গীতাঞ্জলি (Gitanjali), no. 58 [text unavailable]
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Lass alle Freuden ineinanderfließen in meinem letzten Lied - die Freude, die der Erde das Gras beschert in Überfülle, die Freude, die das Zwillingspaar - das Leben und den Tod - lässt tanzen durch die Welt, die Freude, die im Sturmwind naht und lachend alles rüttelt aus dem Schlaf, die Freude, die voll Tränen sitzt still auf offner, roter Lotusblüt’ der Pein, die Freud’, die alles, was sie hat, dem Staub hinwirft und wortlos bleibt.
Authorship:
- Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2014 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.
Bertram Kottmann.  Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de
If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
- a text in English by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in Gitanjali, no. 58, first published 1912
Based on:
- a text in Bangla (Bengali) by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in গীতাঞ্জলি (Gitanjali), no. 58 [text unavailable]
Go to the single-text view
This text was added to the website: 2014-06-23
Line count: 12
Word count: 75
It is the pang of separation that spreads throughout the world and gives birth to shapes innumerable in the infinite sky. It is this sorrow of separation that gazes in silence all nights from star to star and becomes lyric among rustling leaves in rainy darkness of July. It is this overspreading pain that deepens into loves and desires, into sufferings and joy in human homes; and this it is that ever melts and flows in songs through my poet's heart.
Authorship:
- by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in Gitanjali, no. 84
Based on:
- a text in Bangla (Bengali) by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in গীতাঞ্জলি (Gitanjali), no. 84 [text unavailable]
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Es ist der Trennung Pein, die durch das All sich breitet und Formen ohne Zahl in die Unendlichkeit gebiert. Es ist der Trennung Leid, das schweigend allnächtlich blicket starr von Stern zu Stern, und das zur Lyrik wird im Blättersäuseln eines Juliregendunkels. Es ist der Schmerz, der sich, fortwährend, gräbt ein in Lieben und Begehr’n, und in der Menschen Freud und Leid; all dieses ist’s, was sich stets löst und fließet in Liedern durch mein Dichterherz.
Authorship:
- Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2014 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.
Bertram Kottmann.  Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de
If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
- a text in English by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in Gitanjali, no. 84
Based on:
- a text in Bangla (Bengali) by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in গীতাঞ্জলি (Gitanjali), no. 84 [text unavailable]
Go to the single-text view
This text was added to the website: 2014-07-11
Line count: 11
Word count: 76