Tagore Album

Translations © by Bertram Kottmann

Song Cycle by Wendy Hiscocks (b. 1963)

View original-language texts alone: A Tagore Album

1. Light, my light  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English 
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.

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by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941)
1.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
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.

Text 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

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This text was added to the website: 2014-06-23
Line count: 14
Word count: 104

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann
2. Did you leave behind you your love?  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English 
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.

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by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941)
2.
[Translation not yet available]
3. My heart, the bird  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English 
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.

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by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941)
3.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
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.

Text 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

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This text was added to the website: 2015-06-28
Line count: 9
Word count: 58

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann
4. In desperate hope  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English 
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.

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by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941)
4.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
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.

Text 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:

Based on:

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This text was added to the website: 2014-07-11
Line count: 16
Word count: 125

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann
5. Let all the strains of joy  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English 
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.

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by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941)
5.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
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.

Text 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:

Based on:

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This text was added to the website: 2014-06-23
Line count: 12
Word count: 72

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann
6. It is the pain of separation  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English 
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.

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by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941)
6.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
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.

Text 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:

Based on:

Based on:

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2014-07-11
Line count: 11
Word count: 76

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann