by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941)
Translation by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941)
When I bring to you colour’d toys See original
Language: English  after the Bangla (Bengali)
Our translations: GER
When I bring you coloured toys, my child, I understand why there is such a play of colours On clouds, on water, and why flow'rs are painted in tints: When I give colour'd toys to you, my child. When I sing to make you dance, I truly know why there is music in leaves, And why waves send their chorus of voices To the heart of the listening earth: When I sing to make you dance. When I bring sweet things to your greedy hands, I know why there is honey in the cup of the flower And why fruits are secretly filled with sweet juice: When I bring sweet things to your greedy hands. When I kiss your face to make you smile, my darling, I surely understand what pleasure streams from the sky in morning light, and what delight that is that is which the summer breeze brings to my body - when I kiss you to make you smile.
Note: in Gitanjali, the poem has no title; but in The Crescent
Moon, its title is "When and why"
Note: in Trotta's setting, in the last repeat of the first stanza, line 5 (stanza 2 of the original text), the added text "We are free" becomes "We are one." (see footnote 3)
Composition:
- Set to music by John Alden Carpenter (1876 - 1951), "When I bring to you colour’d toys", published 1914 [ voice and piano ], from Gitanjali (Song Offerings), no. 1, New York, G. Schirmer
Text Authorship:
- by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, written 1913, appears in Gitanjali, no. 62, appears in The Crescent Moon, no. 9, first published 1913
Based on:
- a text in Bangla (Bengali) by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in গীতাঞ্জলি (Gitanjali), no. 62 [text unavailable]
See other settings of this text.
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 between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 18
Word count: 162