Gebet | O Wille meines Seins

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by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941)

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann

Life of my life

Language: English after the Bangla (Bengali)

Our translations: FRE GER

Life of my life, 
I shall ever try 
to keep my body pure, 
knowing that thy living touch 
is upon all my limbs.

I shall ever try 
to keep all untruths out from my thoughts, 
knowing that thou art that truth 
which has kindled the light of reason in my mind.

I shall ever try 
to drive all evils away from my heart 
and keep my love in flower, 
knowing that thou 
hast thy seat in the inmost shrine of my heart.

And it shall be my endeavour 
to reveal thee in my actions, 
knowing it is thy power 
gives me strength to act.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in Gitanjali, no. 4, 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. 4 [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 Landon Ronald, Sir (1873 - 1938), "Life of my life, I shall ever try", 1920 [ high voice and piano ], from Four Song Offerings - 2nd series, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (Frederik van Eeden) , no title
FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , "Vie de ma vie, j'essaierai toujours de garder pur mon corps", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Gebet", 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: 18
Word count: 104

Gebet

Language: German (Deutsch) after the English

O Wille meines Seins,
stets werde ich mich müh’n,
rein meinen Leib zu wahren,
da ich doch weiß, dass tätig Du
mein ganzes Sein berührst.

Stets werde ich mich müh’n,
Wahrhaftigkeit zu wahren,
da ich doch weiß, dass wahrlich du
Licht der Vernunft in mir entzündet.

Stets werde ich mich müh’n,
mein Herz dem Bösen zu verwehren
und immerdar soll meine Liebe blühn,
da ich doch weiß, dass du
im Schreine meines Herzens wohnst.

Und stets werd' ich mich müh’n,
in meinem Tun dich zu erweisen,
da ich doch weiß, dass deine Kraft
mir Kraft zum Handeln gibt.

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. 4, 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. 4 [text unavailable]
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2014-03-24
Line count: 18
Word count: 98