Gitanjali 2
When thou commandest me to sing it seems that my heart would break withpride; and I look to thy face, and tears come to my eyes.
All that is harsh and dissonant in my life melts into one sweetharmony—and my adoration spreads wings like a glad bird on its flightacross the sea.
I know thou takest pleasure in my singing. I know that only as a singerI come before thy presence.
I touch by the edge of the far-spreading wing of my song thy feet whichI could never aspire to reach.
Drunk with the joy of singing I forget myself and call thee friend whoart my lord.
Words in this poem
- dissonant a.
- Sounding harshly; discordant; unharmonious. [L. dissonans, -antis, p. pr. of dissonare to disagree in sound, be discordant; dis- + sonare to sound: cf. F. dissonant. See Sonant.]
- aspire v. t.
- To aspire to; to long for; to try to reach; to mount to.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Gitanjali 2 is in the public domain. This text is taken from Gitanjali (Song Offerings), a collection of prose translations made by the author from the original Bengali, with an introduction by W. B. Yeats (India Society, London, 1912), Project Gutenberg ebook #7164; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali 2, in Gitanjali (Song Offerings) (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7164, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tagore-gitanjali/poem-2.html, id L27864.
About this section
Gitanjali 2 is prose, printed in 5 paragraphs. It is part of the edition and is kept for reading, but nothing here is measured: the line breaks are the printer's, so no metre, rhyme scheme or scansion is stated.
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