Gitanjali 28
Obstinate are the trammels, but my heart aches when I try to breakthem.
Freedom is all I want, but to hope for it I feel ashamed.
I am certain that priceless wealth is in thee, and that thou art mybest friend, but I have not the heart to sweep away the tinsel thatfills my room.
The shroud that covers me is a shroud of dust and death; I hate it, yethug it in love.
My debts are large, my failures great, my shame secret and heavy; yetwhen I come to ask for my good, I quake in fear lest my prayer begranted.
Words in this poem
- priceless a.
- Too valuable to admit of being appraised; of inestimable worth; invaluable.
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Gitanjali 28 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 28, in Gitanjali (Song Offerings) (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7164, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tagore-gitanjali/poem-28.html, id L27890.
About this section
Gitanjali 28 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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