Gitanjali 20
On the day when the lotus bloomed, alas, my mind was straying, and Iknew it not. My basket was empty and the flower remained unheeded.
Only now and again a sadness fell upon me, and I started up from mydream and felt a sweet trace of a strange fragrance in the south wind.
That vague sweetness made my heart ache with longing and it seemed tome that is was the eager breath of the summer seeking for itscompletion.
I knew not then that it was so near, that it was mine, and that thisperfect sweetness had blossomed in the depth of my own heart.
Words in this poem
- sadness n.
- Heaviness; firmness.
- ache n.
- A name given to several species of plants; as, smallage, wild celery, parsley. Holland. [F. ache, L. apium parsley.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Gitanjali 20 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 20, in Gitanjali (Song Offerings) (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7164, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tagore-gitanjali/poem-20.html, id L27882.
About this section
Gitanjali 20 is prose, printed in 4 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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