If you have been schooled in India, you couldn't possibly have not read this in
some English textbook or the other. I have always been captivated by the
simplicity and economy of this poem; how, through exquisite imagery, Tagore
expresses such profound thoughts. If you find that it reads more like a prayer
chant from a religious book, you won't be far from the truth: the original
Bengali poem which Tagore himself translated as below, was titled
"Prayer". This poem really a plea, not for the political independence
that was being sought early this century when it was written, but for freedom
from parochialness and dogma, a prayer that is perhaps as relevant today as it
was then. Maybe human nature itself is such that it always turns
once-refreshing paradigms into stale tradition, forcing a Tagore in every
generation to thus complain.
some English textbook or the other. I have always been captivated by the
simplicity and economy of this poem; how, through exquisite imagery, Tagore
expresses such profound thoughts. If you find that it reads more like a prayer
chant from a religious book, you won't be far from the truth: the original
Bengali poem which Tagore himself translated as below, was titled
"Prayer". This poem really a plea, not for the political independence
that was being sought early this century when it was written, but for freedom
from parochialness and dogma, a prayer that is perhaps as relevant today as it
was then. Maybe human nature itself is such that it always turns
once-refreshing paradigms into stale tradition, forcing a Tagore in every
generation to thus complain.
This poem is from Gitanjali(Offering of Songs), published in English in 1910.
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Where The Mind is Without Fear
[FONT=Courier,sans-serif]Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; [/FONT]
[FONT=Courier,sans-serif]Where knowledge is free;[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier,sans-serif]Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier,sans-serif]Where words come out from the depth of truth;[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier,sans-serif]Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier,sans-serif]Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier,sans-serif]Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action--[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier,sans-serif]Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier,sans-serif]Where knowledge is free;[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier,sans-serif]Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier,sans-serif]Where words come out from the depth of truth;[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier,sans-serif]Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier,sans-serif]Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier,sans-serif]Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action--[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier,sans-serif]Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier,sans-serif]-- Rabindranath Tagore[/FONT][FONT=Courier,sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier,sans-serif]-[/FONT]
Each time I read Tagore's poem, it brings tears of happiness into my eyes to
see my country finally coming of age - out of the 'dreary desert of dead habit'
Also Gandhi's 'Sabko sammati de bhagwan' resonate as we charge as leaders
into the knowledge economy of the new millenium.
see my country finally coming of age - out of the 'dreary desert of dead habit'
Also Gandhi's 'Sabko sammati de bhagwan' resonate as we charge as leaders
into the knowledge economy of the new millenium.
[FONT=Courier,sans-serif]Thanks[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier,sans-serif]-[/FONT]
