Life of my life, I shall ever try | Life of my life

by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941)

Translation by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941)

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

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-11-03
Line count: 18
Word count: 104