Gitanjali 88
Deity of the ruined temple! The broken strings of Vina sing no moreyour praise. The bells in the evening proclaim not your time ofworship. The air is still and silent about you.
In your desolate dwelling comes the vagrant spring breeze. It bringsthe tidings of flowers—the flowers that for your worship are offered nomore.
Your worshipper of old wanders ever longing for favour still refused.In the eventide, when fires and shadows mingle with the gloom of dust,he wearily comes back to the ruined temple with hunger in his heart.
Many a festival day comes to you in silence, deity of the ruinedtemple. Many a night of worship goes away with lamp unlit.
Many new images are built by masters of cunning art and carried to theholy stream of oblivion when their time is come.
Only the deity of the ruined temple remains unworshipped in deathlessneglect.
Words in this poem
- favour n.
- Kind regard; propitious aspect; countenance; friendly disposition; kindness; good will. [Written also favour.]
- eventide n.
- The time of evening; evening. [AS. æfentid. See Tide.]
- wearily adv.
- In a weary manner.
- oblivion n.
- The act of forgetting, or the state of being forgotten; cessation of remembrance; forgetfulness. [L. oblivio, akin to oblivisci to forget: cf. OF. oblivion.]
- deathless a.
- Not subject to death, destruction, or extinction; immortal; undying; imperishable; as, deathless beings; deathless fame.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Gitanjali 88 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 88, in Gitanjali (Song Offerings) (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7164, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tagore-gitanjali/poem-88.html, id L27950.
About this section
Gitanjali 88 is prose, printed in 6 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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