Paper boats

Day by day I float my paper boats 
one by one down the running stream.

In big black letters I write my name on them 
and the name of the village where I live.

I hope that someone in some strange land 
will find them and know who I am.

I load my little boats with shiuli flowers 
from our garden, and hope that these blooms of the dawn 
will be carried safely to land in the night.

I launch my paper boats and look up into the sky 
and see the little clouds setting their white bulging sails.

I know not what playmate of mine in the sky 
sends them down the air to race with my boats!

When night comes I bury my face in my arms 
and dream that my paper boats float on and on 
under the midnight stars.

The fairies of sleep are sailing in them, 
and the lading is their baskets full of dreams.

Submitted by Emily Ezust [Administrator]

Authorship

• by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), "Paper boats", written 1913, appears in The Crescent Moon, no. 19, London, Mc Millan & Co, first published 1913 [ author's text checked 1 time]

• a text in Bangla (Bengali) by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), written 1913, appears in The Crescent Moon, London, Mc Millan & Co, first published 1913 [text unavailable]
• Go to the text.

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

• by Darius Milhaud (1892 - 1974), "Paper boats", op. 36 no. 3 (1916), published 1923, first performed 1919 [high voice and piano], from Child Poems, no. 3, Éd. Composers Music Corporation [
   text not verified 
  ]

Text added to the website: 2016-08-06.
Last modified: 2016-08-06 13:58:22
Line count: 18
Word count: 160

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