Rabindranath Tagore Translations Ii

Patience by Rabindranath Tagore loose translation by Michael R. Burch If you refuse to speak, I will fill my heart with your silence and endure it. I will remain still and wait like the night through its starry vigil with its head bent low in patience. The morning will surely come, the darkness will vanish, and your voice will pour down in golden streams breaking through the heavens. Then your words will take wing in songs from every one of my birds' nests, and your melodies will break forth in flowers in all my forest groves. Gitanjali 35 by Rabindranath Tagore loose translation by Michael R. Burch Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been divided by narrow domestic walls; Where words emerge from the depths of truth; Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not been lost amid the dreary desert sands of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward into ever-widening thought and action; Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Last Curtain by Rabindranath Tagore loose translation by Michael R. Burch I know the day comes when my eyes close, when my sight fails, when life takes its leave in silence and the last curtain veils my vision. Yet the stars will still watch by night; the sun will still rise like before; the hours will still heave like sea waves casting up pleasures and pains. When I consider this end of my earth-life, the barrier of the moments breaks and I see by the illumination of death this world with its careless treasures. Rare is its lowliest seat, rare its meanest of lives. Things I longed for in vain and those I received, let them pass. Let me but truly possess the things I rejected and overlooked. Death by Rabindranath Tagore loose translation by Michael R. Burch You who are the final fulfillment of life, Death, my Death, come and whisper to me! Day after day I have kept watch for you; for you I have borne the joys and the pangs of life. All that I am, all that I have and hope, and all my love have always flowed toward you in the depths of secrecy. One final glance from your eyes and my life will be yours forever, your own. The flowers have been woven and the garland prepared for the bridegroom. After the wedding the bride must leave her home and meet her lord alone in the solitude of night. W. S. Rendra translations Willibrordus Surendra Broto Rendra (1935-2009), better known as W. S. Rendra or simply Rendra, was an Indonesian dramatist and poet. He said, “I learned meditation and the disciplines of the traditional Javanese poet from my mother, who was a palace dancer. The idea of the Javanese poet is to be a guardian of the spirit of the nation.” The press gave him the nickname Burung Merak (“The Peacock”) for his flamboyant poetry readings and stage performances. SONNET by W. S. Rendra loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Best wishes for an impending deflowering. Yes, I understand: you will never be mine. I am resigned to my undeserved fate. I contemplate irrational numbers?complex & undefined. And yet I wish love might ... ameliorate ... such negative numbers, dark and unsigned. But at least I can’t be held responsible for disappointing you. No cause to elate. Still, I am resigned to my undeserved fate. The gods have spoken. I can relate. How can this be, when all it makes no sense? I was born too soon?such was my fate. You must choose another, not half of who I AM. Be happy with him when you consummate. THE WORLD'S FIRST FACE by W. S. Rendra loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Illuminated by the pale moonlight the groom carries his bride up the hill? both of them naked, both consisting of nothing but themselves. As in all beginnings the world is naked, empty, free of deception, dark with unspoken explanations? a silence that extends to the limits of time. Then comes light, life, the animals and man. As in all beginnings everything is naked, empty, open. They're both young, yet both have already come a long way, passing through the illusions of brilliant dawns, of skies illuminated by hope, of rivers intimating contentment. They have experienced the sun's warmth, drenched in each other's sweat. Here, standing by barren reefs, they watch evening fall bringing strange dreams to a bed arrayed with resplendent coral necklaces. They lift their heads to view trillions of stars arrayed in the sky. The universe is their inheritance: stars upon stars upon stars, more than could ever be extinguished. Illuminated by the pale moonlight the groom carries his bride up the hill? both of them naked, to recreate the world's first face. Keywords/Tags: international, travel, voyage, wedding, relationship, Rendra, W. S. Rendra, Indonesian, Javanese, translation, love, fate, god, gods, goddess, groom, bride, world, time, life, sun, hill, hills, moon, moonlight, stars, life, animals