20
Tonight  you’re trysting with a storm
friend of my heart oh friend
the heavens rain despair
eyes emptied of sleep
I unlatch the door, oh love
I look out again and again
friend of my heart oh friend

I can’t see a thing outside
can’t guess your path
far off on some riverbank
at some forest’s edge
in thickest darkness
you’re crossing over
friend of my heart oh friend

“Padma” boat
Srabon 1316

26
Day is done, shadows fall
over the earth
now let me go down to the ghat
and fill my kolosh
the river's whispers distress
the dimming sky
oh!  that melody is calling me
down the path
let me go down to the ghat
and fill my kolosh

Now no one’s coming or going
on the lonely path
oh! waves race along love’s river
as the wind rises
I don’t know whether I’ll come back
whether I’ll meet someone tonight
by the ghat    a stranger’s playing the veena
on a raft
let me go down to the ghat
and fill my kolosh

13 Bhadro 1316

34
You’ve been coming for me
 forever
hiding behind
 your sun and moon
your footsteps always ringing
at dawn or dusk
a messenger whispering
in my heart

Oh voyager, today
 waves of joy
set my whole being
 quivering quivering
as if at last
my work’s ended
oh maharaj, the breeze
is spiced with your scent

16 Bhadro 1316

44
I was invited to the world’s festival
blessed my life’s been blessed
 images flooded my eyes
 my ears drowned in sounds
 I roamed till my hunger
 was sated

my job at your festival
 was to play the flute
to stroll composing songs
 of life’s laughter and tears
 has the time come?
 if I see you holding court
 I’ll trumpet triumph
 this is my humble offering

Shilaidah
30 Aswin 1316

56
Youclimbed down, lord
from your lion seat
andstood at the door
of my lonely room
I was sitting by myself
singing a song
when a note caught your ear
you climbed down, lord
and  stood at the door
of my lonely room

countless skillful songs
fill your court
today’s unskilled song
echoed your love
a tentative note
tapped the world’s harmony
garland in hand
you climbed down, lord
and  stood at the door
of my lonely room

27 Choitro 1316

61
He came and sat beside me
but I didn’t wake
poor girl
overcome by sleep
he came in the hush of night
his veena in hand
and left a dark ragini
echoing in my dream

your maddening scent
seeds the south wind
fills the darkness and wakes me
why won’t he take me
when he comes at night
oh why don’t I feel his garland
against my breast

Bolpur
12 Boisakh 1317

83
You promised we’d go just you and I
adriftin a boat just drifting
no one on earth neither above nor below would know
where our journey would end at which altar in what realm
in the middle of that shoreless sea
I would sing a ragini for you alone
like waves on wordless waves
 you would smile silently and listen

Is it time yet? is there still work to do?
lovelook, night is falling over the sands
shorebirds spread their wings in the twilight
homeward they all fly
when will you come down to the ghat
and cut the line?
like the sun dropping beneath the horizon
ourboat will slip away through the night

Bolpur
30 Jyoistho 1317

103
I started out to meet you
by myself
so who’s following me
in the muffled dark?
I want to get rid of him
I circle and backtrack
and decide the stalker’s gone
but there he is again!

he’s a walking earthquake
the way he stomps along
whenever I try to say a word
he butts in
lord, it’s me, my self!
he hasn’t a shred of shame
I’m so ashamed of him
how can I come to your door?

14 Asarh 1317

125
My song has cast off
its bangles
no point preening
when we meet
bangles just get
in the way
their jangling
drowns out your voice

I shed my pride
when we meet
great poet, let me
sit at your feet
if I spend my days making
a plain bamboo flute
and fill it with my breath
will you give me the notes?

Kolkata
1 Srabon 1317

132
my whole life long
I’ve sought you through song
within myself, beyond
the song has carried me
room to room, door to door
I’ve glossed all the world
with song

such lessons learned
such secret paths found
such stars I’ve greeted
in my heart’s orbit

I’ve explored the hinterlands
every region of joy and pain
which mansion have I reached
at nightfall?

10 Srabon 1317

148
Let me bow down, lord
 let me bow down
so I can touch the ground
 of your creation
As monsoon clouds
lower their burden to earth
 let me bow down, lord
let me bow down
 so I can lay my heart
at your door

As spilled notes weave
a river of song
 let me bow down, lord
let me bow down
 so my mind can dissolve
in the silent sea

As geese fly onward
day and night
 let me bow down, lord
let me bow down
 so my soul can cross over
to death’s other shore

23 Srabon 1317

157
If day should die, if no birds sing
 if the wind’s too weary to fly
then draw the darkness over me
 thicker than thickest cloudcover
  as you’d blanket the earth
  softly, secretly, with dreams
 and close the lotus petals of night
  as if kissing eyelids shut

That vagabond with a crop of bruises
 clothed in grime and dust
strength shattered, near collapse
 last coin spent long ago
  wrap his wounds, hide his shame
  in a cloud of compassion
 soothe him with dark nectar
  let dawn blossom anew

Kolkata
29 Srabon 1317

Translator's Note
The translations follow the numbering of Tagore’s Bengali Gitanjali. In the following list, the second number in each pair corresponds to the number in his English Gitanjali: A Collection of Prose Translations Made by the Author from the Original Bengali: 20/23, 26/74, 34/46, 44/32 (??16?), 56/49, 61/26, 83/42, 103/30, 125/7, 132/101, 148/103, 157/24. The twelve poems were written between August 1909 and August 1910 (10 Bhadro 1316–29 Shrabon 1317; Tagore often noted the date of composition, using the Bengali calendar). Tagore also sometimes recorded the place of composition as he traveled from place to place in Bengal. The “Padma” is the Tagore family’s houseboat, named by the poet after the river Padma; Shilaidah (or Shelidah) is a village in East Bengal (now Bangladesh), and the location of the family estate; Bolpur is the railway station closest to the village of Santiniketan, the site of Visva-Bharati, an educational institution that Tagore founded.