Friend
Art thou abroad on this stormy night
on thy journey of love, my friend?
The sky groans like one in despair.
I have no sleep tonight.
Ever and again I open my door and look out on
the darkness, my friend!
I can see nothing before me.
I wonder where lies thy path!
By what dim shore of the ink-black river,
by what far edge of the frowning forest,
through what mazy depth of gloom art thou threading
thy course to come to me, my friend?
Art thou abroad on this stormy night
on thy journey of love, my friend?
The sky groans like one in despair.
I have no sleep tonight.
Ever and again I open my door and look out on
the darkness, my friend!
I can see nothing before me.
I wonder where lies thy path!
By what dim shore of the ink-black river,
by what far edge of the frowning forest,
through what mazy depth of gloom art thou threading
thy course to come to me, my friend?
Recognise the above poem? No! How about this one?
Mind Without Fear
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up
into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason
has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action---
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up
into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason
has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action---
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
Yeah! I have been reading Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore. Its kewl! I didn't realise he was such a romantic...wow! Guess!! A poet has to be little bit of everything
5 comments:
Nice!
we had to learn the 2nd one in school; it was the prayer in my school for sometime too; someone has very nicely tranlated it into malayalam (in a very musical tone!)
Yeah! i distinctly remember hating "Mind without fear" with every other poem we were made to learn by heart, in school... :-p
I have read the second one..
Ahh there s so much to read
I know the 'where the mind is without fear' by heart... :D
Thanks to my english teacher who used to give it to us in all tests !
On the first one..Read it for the first time.It shows Tagore waiting for a dear friend. It doesnt say if he has met the friend or is searching for a friend. If you know the meaning, do share it.
@Arch: I am not sure if poems need to be understood always by the meaning the poet wants it to mean.
I was reading the poem when I was missing an old friend of mine and it felt like I was reading it out just for her...
Dont u think it adds value to a poem when it rings a bell or runs a parallel to ur own thought
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