by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941)
Translation by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941)
O mother, the young Prince is to pass by...
Language: English  after the Bangla (Bengali)
Available translation(s): FRE
O mother, the young Prince is to pass by our door, -- how can I attend to my work this morning? Show me how to braid up my hair; tell me what garment to put on. Why do you look at me amazed, mother? I know well he will not glance up once at my window; I know he will pass out of my sight in the twinkling of an eye; only the vanishing strain of the flute will come sobbing to me from afar. But the young Prince will pass by our door, and I will put on my best for the moment. O mother, the young Prince did pass by our door, and the morning sun flashed from his chariot. I swept aside the veil from my face, I tore the ruby chain from my neck and flung it in his path. Why do you look at me amazed, mother? I know well he did not pick up my chain; I know it was crushed under his wheels leaving a red stain upon the dust, and no one knows what my gift was nor to whom. But the young Prince did pass by our door, and I flung the jewel from my breast before his path.
About the headline (FAQ)
Authorship:
- by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in The Gardener, no. 7, first published 1913 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in Bangla (Bengali) by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941) [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 Arthur Koerner (1876 - 19??), "O mother, the young Prince is to pass by", 1917, from Spoken Songs, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Jan Śliwiński (1884 - 1950) , appears in Rabindranath Tagore. Der Gärtner, no. 7, first published 1916 ; composed by Jan Pieter Hendrik van Gilse, Willem de Haan, Karol Maciej Szymanowski, Alexander Zemlinsky.
- Also set in Italian (Italiano), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Franco Alfano.
- Also set in Polish (Polski), a translation by Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz (1894 - 1980) ; composed by Karol Maciej Szymanowski.
- Also set in Spanish (Español), a translation by Zenobia Camprubí Aymar (c1887 - 1956) , appears in Obras de Rabindranath Tagore: El jardinero, first published 1917 ; composed by Juan José Castro.
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Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Ô mère, le jeune Prince doit passer", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Rudolf Hirsch) , no title, appears in Irrgarten der Liebe
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2010-11-05
Line count: 23
Word count: 207