by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941)
Translation by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941)
My desires are many and my cry is...
Language: English  after the Bangla (Bengali)
My desires are many and my cry is pitiful, but ever didst thou save me by hard refusals; and this strong mercy has been wrought into my life through and through. Day by day thou art making me worthy of the simple, great gifts that thou gavest to me unasked; this sky and the light, this body and the life and the mind saving me from perils of overmuch desire. There are times when I languidly linger and times when I awaken and hurry in search of my goal; but cruelly thou hidest thyself from before me. Day by day thou art making me worthy of thy full acceptance by refusing me ever and anon, saving me from perils of weak, uncertain desire.
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View text with all available footnotesAuthorship:
- by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in Gitanjali, no. 14, 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), appears in গীতাঞ্জলি (Gitanjali), no. 14 [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 Naresh Sohal (b. 1939), "My desires are many and my cry is pitiful", 1999, first performed 1999 [ soprano and piano ], from Songs of Desire, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in Dutch (Nederlands), a translation by Frederik van Eeden (1860 - 1932) ; composed by Hendrik Andriessen.
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Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , "Mes désirs sont nombreux et mon cri fait pitié", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2010-01-24
Line count: 14
Word count: 123