TRIBUTE & TRANSLATIONS OF RABINDRANATH TAGORE’S SONG-LYRICS

Laksmisree Banerjee

Laksmisree Banerjee

 

From ‘Prem’ Series of Tagore’s Song Lyrics

 

 

‘Mone Ki Didha Rekhe Gele Chole’

 

What is that unsaid longing,

that folded qualm, the reluctance

within your heart, which you kept

from me that evening while departing

in the muted colours of twilight?

 

Rabindranath Tagore

What is that untold word

that confession you wished

to make but did not, as you

turned your face once more to

look back at me while going away?

 

I could see that cryptic smile

and flicker in your eyes while

I sat in rumination with a heavy,

trembling heart, still believing in

your presence in a distant universe.

 

My agony remains alive yet

in the company of the flying birds

 across the skies, wishing again to ask you

 for those secret words of reticence

to unmask your deepest feelings

 

I still remain frozen in that moment

when you suddenly left me

with my injury in fond remembrance,

imbued forever in the fragrance of

the tacit pain of tottering Juthi flowers.

***

 

 

 

From ‘Puja’ Series of Tagore’s Song Lyrics

 

 

 

 

Je Rathe More Duar Guli …….

 

That dark night when the storm broke in

crashing open my gates

I knew not about your silent tip-toeing

across my threshold

into my home

 

When the fearful blackness engulfed all

burning out my lighted lamps

I knew not who I looked for while

I raised my folded hands

Upward in prayer

 

As I lay breathless in the dark

perhaps in dream or in nightmare

I knew not that the tempest

bore your proud banner, the herald

of your coming

 

Till you awakened me in the morning

with your shining presence

while your arrival

fulfilled me within the emptiness

of my ravaged heart

***

 

 

Bohu din dhorey bohu krosh durey**

 

Over a long time, through miles of space

Having spent a lot to see the grace

Of wondrous hills, seas, lands and vales

Which vastly adorn our worldly ways.

 

But I never did view the bounteous sight

Of the natural smallness beyond the heights

Being just a few steps from my home

I never did see that glistening gold

That glory, that light at my very threshold

 

A patch of greenery so well made

But always pushed along the shade

That beaming dew drop in the glade

A sparkling smile on a tiny rice blade

******************************

**Tagore’s autograph in Bangla given to the iconic film maker Satyajit Ray when the latter was a mere child.

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Setu, September 2025