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My love, once upon a time your poet launched a great epic in his mind. Alas, I was not careful, and it struck your ringing anklets and came to grief. It broke up into scraps of songs and lay scattered at your feet. All my cargo of the stories of old wars was tossed by the laughing waves and soaked in tears and sank. You must make this loss good to me, my love. If my claims to immortal fame after death are shattered, make me immortal while I live. And I will not mourn for my loss nor blame you.
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Text Authorship:
- by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in The Gardener, no. 38, 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 Raymond Hanson (1913 - 1976), "My love, once upon a time", op. 39 no. 7 (1959/60) [ tenor and piano ], from Seven songs from The Gardener , no. 7 [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Meine Liebe, einst", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2010-11-05
Line count: 13
Word count: 101
Meine Liebe, einst schwebte deinem Dichter ein großes Epos vor. Doch, ach, ich war nicht achtsam: Es stieß an deine klingenden Fußkettchen und scheiterte. Es zerbrach in Bruchstücke von Liedern und lag zerstreut zu deinen Füßen. Die ganze Ladung meiner Geschichten über längst vergang’ne Kriege wurde von den lachenden Wellen hochgeschleudert, von Tränen getränkt, um dann zu sinken. Du solltest mir diesen Verlust ausgleichen, meine Liebe. Sollte mein Anspruch auf unvergänglichen Ruhm zerschlagen sein, dann mach’ unsterblich mich, solang ich lebe. Dann werd ich wegen meines Verlusts nicht trauern und ihn dir nicht verdenken.
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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Based on:
- a text in English by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in The Gardener, no. 38, first published 1913
Based on:
- a text in Bangla (Bengali) by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941) [text unavailable]
This text was added to the website: 2015-10-27
Line count: 13
Word count: 94