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Thou hast made me known to friends whom I knew not. Thou hast given me seats in homes not my own. Thou hast brought the distant near and made a brother of the stranger. I am uneasy at heart when I have to leave my accustomed shelter; I forget that there abides the old in the new, and that there also thou abidest. Through birth and death, in this world or in others, wherever thou leadest me it is thou, the same, the one companion of my endless life who ever linkest my heart with bonds of joy to the unfamiliar. When one knows thee, then alien there is none, then no door is shut. Oh, grant me my prayer that I may never lose the bliss of the touch of the one in the play of many.
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in Gitanjali, no. 63, 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. 63 [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):
- [ None yet in the database ]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in French (Français), a translation by André Gide (1869 - 1951) , no title, appears in Gitanjali (L'Offrande lyrique), no. 63, first published 1914 ; composed by Henriette Puig-Roget.
Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- 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: 14
Word count: 138
Du hast mir Freunde aufgetan, die ich nicht kannte. In fremden Häusern durfte Platz ich nehmen. Entferntes brachtest du mir nah, dem Fremden wurd’ zum Bruder ich. Mein Herz ist bang, wenn Sichres, Trautes ich verlassen muss; dabei vergess ich, dass im Neuen auch das Alte wohnt, und dass auch du dort weilst. Vom ersten bis zum letzten Tage meines Lebens, in dieser oder andern Welten, wohin du immer mich auch führst, bist du der Gleiche, der auf endlos langem Wege mich geleitet, und der mein Herz mit Freudenbanden stets ans Unvertraute knüpft. Dem, der dich kennt, bleibt niemand fremd und keine Tür verschlossen. Erhör mein Bitten, dass im Spiel der Vielen mir stets das Glück zuteil, das Eine zu berührn.
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
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Based on:
- a text in English by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in Gitanjali, no. 63, first published 1912
Based on:
- a text in Bangla (Bengali) by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), appears in গীতাঞ্জলি (Gitanjali), no. 63 [text unavailable]
This text was added to the website: 2014-07-02
Line count: 14
Word count: 121