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by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941)
Translation by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941)

Leave this chanting and singing and...
Language: English  after the Bangla (Bengali) 
Our translations:  GER
Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads! 
Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner 
of a temple with doors all shut? 
Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee!

He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground 
and where the pathmaker is breaking stones. 
He is with them in sun and in shower, 
and his garment is covered with dust. 
Put of thy holy mantle and even like him 
come down on the dusty soil!

Deliverance? Where is this deliverance to be found? 
Our master himself has joyfully taken upon him 
the bonds of creation; 
he is bound with us all for ever.

Come out of thy meditations 
and leave aside thy flowers and incense! 
What harm is there if thy clothes become tattered and stained? 
Meet him and stand by him in toil and in sweat of thy brow.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in Gitanjali, no. 11, 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. 11, first published 1912 [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):

    [ None yet in the database ]

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: 18
Word count: 150

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