Gitanjali 89
No more noisy, loud words from me—such is my master’s will. HenceforthI deal in whispers. The speech of my heart will be carried on inmurmurings of a song.
Men hasten to the King’s market. All the buyers and sellers are there.But I have my untimely leave in the middle of the day, in the thick ofwork.
Let then the flowers come out in my garden, though it is not theirtime; and let the midday bees strike up their lazy hum.
Full many an hour have I spent in the strife of the good and the evil,but now it is the pleasure of my playmate of the empty days to draw myheart on to him; and I know not why is this sudden call to what uselessinconsequence!
Words in this poem
- henceforth adv.
- From this time forward; henceforward.
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- playmate n.
- A companion in diversions; a playfellow.
- inconsequence n.
- The quality or state of being inconsequent; want of just or logical inference or argument; inconclusiveness. Bp. Stillingfleet. [L. inconsequentia: cf. F. inconséquence.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Gitanjali 89 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 89, in Gitanjali (Song Offerings) (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7164, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tagore-gitanjali/poem-89.html, id L27951.
About this section
Gitanjali 89 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.
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.