“Gitanjali (excerpt)”
The song that I came to sing remains unsung to this day.
I have spent my days in stringing and unstringing my instrument.
The time has not come true, the words have not been rightly set; only there is the agony of wishing in my heart.
The blossom has not opened; only the wind is sighing by.
I have not seen his face, nor have I listened to his voice; only I have heard his gentle footsteps on the road before my house.
The livelong day has passed in spreading his seat on the floor; but the lamp has not been lit and I cannot ask him into my house.
I live in the hope of meeting with him; but this meeting is not yet.
— Rabindranath Tagore
from the Gitanjali (1923)
If the English translation sounds so mellow and lovely, imagine how wonderful the Bangla original would sound! Such a pity that I don’t follow the language. Too many languages, too less of time, too much to communicate…:-)
What an atypical dilemma!
paappaan says:
Saawana Gagane
I once recorded an MP3 from an old Robindra Sangeet cassette — it was a young Lata Mangeshkar singing “saawana gagane ghora ghanaghata”. It is heavenly. I don’t know Bengali, but that song has enough Sanskrit words so that I can make some sense of it. Combined with Latha’s melodious voice, it is just out of this world…
October 20, 2005 — 8:21 pm
Lakshmi says:
Re: Saawana Gagane
Basically I love the sound of Bengali. Supposedly it is the second sweetest language in the world after French though I personally feel that Bangla ranks way above Francaise when it comes to sweetness of the language.
Any way I can get hold of this mp3???
October 21, 2005 — 6:15 am
paappaan says:
Re: Saawana Gagane
I have two choices: (a) Email it to you (if you can send me an email address to send the song to. My email id is paappaan at gmail dot com) — this is obviously the easier option for me -or- (b) If you know a place where I can upload it to, let me know, I’ll try to do that.
October 21, 2005 — 9:00 am
greenmallu says:
Re: Saawana Gagane
Alright, I’ve found a solution. I re-activated my long-dead Yahoo account and put the song in the briefcase, namely http://briefcase.yahoo.com/njmallu . You should find it under a folder named ‘rabindrasangeet’. Let me know once you have downloaded the song.
(I am Paappaan, just changed my handle — too many ‘p’s and ‘a’s that I was always mistyping… :))
October 25, 2005 — 10:56 am
Lakshmi says:
Re: Saawana Gagane
I am Paappaan, just changed my handle
🙂
Can understand why! Paappaan is a nice name though I wondered briefly why you chose it! Thanks for the song. I have already downloaded it.
October 26, 2005 — 8:27 am
greenmallu says:
Re: Saawana Gagane
You are welcome. Hope you like it, the sound quality is a bit on the poorer side.
October 26, 2005 — 9:29 am