Gitanjali 53
Beautiful is thy wristlet, decked with stars and cunningly wrought inmyriad-coloured jewels. But more beautiful to me thy sword with itscurve of lightning like the outspread wings of the divine bird ofVishnu, perfectly poised in the angry red light of the sunset.
It quivers like the one last response of life in ecstasy of pain at thefinal stroke of death; it shines like the pure flame of being burningup earthly sense with one fierce flash.
Beautiful is thy wristlet, decked with starry gems; but thy sword, Olord of thunder, is wrought with uttermost beauty, terrible to beholdor think of.
Words in this poem
- wristlet n.
- An elastic band worn around the wrist, as for the purpose of securing the upper part of a glove.
- myriad n.
- The number of ten thousand; ten thousand persons or things. [Gr. myriade.]
- coloured a.
- Having color; tinged; dyed; painted; stained.
- outspread v. t.
- To spread out; to expand; -- usually as a past part. or adj.
- angry a.
- Troublesome; vexatious; rigorous. [See Anger.]
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- uttermost a.
- Extreme; utmost; being; in the farthest, greatest, or highest degree; as, the uttermost extent or end. [From Utter, a.; cf. Utmost, and Outermost.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Gitanjali 53 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 53, in Gitanjali (Song Offerings) (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7164, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tagore-gitanjali/poem-53.html, id L27915.
About this section
Gitanjali 53 is prose, printed in 3 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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