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by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941)
Translation © by Bertram Kottmann

He whom I enclose with my name is...
Language: English  after the Bangla (Bengali) 
Our translations:  FRE GER
He whom I enclose with my name is weeping in this dungeon. 
I am ever busy building this wall all around; 
and as this wall goes up into the sky day by day 
I lose sight of my true being in its dark shadow.

I take pride in this great wall, 
and I plaster it with dust and sand 
lest a least hole should be left in this name; 
and for all the care I take 
I lose sight of my true being.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in Gitanjali, no. 29, 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. 29 [text unavailable]
    • Go to the text page.

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

  • by Raymond Murray Schafer (b. 1933), "Gitanjali no. 29", 1962 [ soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, and women's chorus ], from Four Songs on Texts by Tagore, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]

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


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-11-03
Line count: 9
Word count: 83

Der, den mit meinem Namen ich...
Language: German (Deutsch)  after the English 
Der, den mit meinem Namen ich einschließe, er weint in diesem Kerker.
Rastlos ziehe ich Tag für Tag die Mauer hoch;
und wie sie hoch und höher wächst zum Himmel,
verlier ich immer mehr den Blick in ihrem düstern Schatten für mein wahres Ich.

Stolz bin ich auf die mächt’ge Mauer, 
verschließe sie mit Gips und Sand,
dass nicht die kleinste Öffnung sei in diesem Namen; 
bei aller Sorgfalt, aller Müh
verlier mein wahres Sein ich aus dem Blick.

About the headline (FAQ)

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: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

  • a text in English by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in Gitanjali, no. 29, first published 1912
    • Go to the text page.

Based on:

  • a text in Bangla (Bengali) by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), appears in গীতাঞ্জলি (Gitanjali), no. 29 [text unavailable]
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2014-04-30
Line count: 9
Word count: 79

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This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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