Ask Not

by Rajat Das Gupta

Ask not when which song
For whom I meant to belong,
Lying on the wayside dust for him
Who, worth an honour it will deem.
Have you heard my message;
To your heart it had a passage?
I know not your name,
Yet, you are the very aim
Of my meditative treasure
That goes to you without measure.

Thus the Poet Rabindranath Tagore dedicated his book 'Mahua', nay, the entire boundless treasure of his aesthetic creation, to mankind.

12-Sep-2013

More By : Rajat Das Gupta

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Comments on this Poem

19 Sept. '13
TO: TagoreBlog
Excellent translation! I respect any attempt to transmit our great World Poet to the World across his Bengali confine.
Rajat Das Gupta

Rajat Das Gupta
19-Sep-2013 06:11 AM

At http://www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content&sd=Poem&PoemID=4939 another translation of this poem may be read.

TagoreBlog
18-Sep-2013 20:17 PM

Here is another translation of the same poem which may be compared with the present translation as well as with the original -

DEDICATION

Please don’t ask me
Which of my songs
I dedicated to whom and when
They are lying on the way
They are lying on the dust
Only for him who will view them with love.

Have you got my message
Have you taken it to your heart?
I don’t know your name
To you I dedicate my songs –
The precious yield of my dreaming mind.

TagoreBlog
18-Sep-2013 20:08 PM

Thanks Rajat Sir for sharing this excellent dedication and as usual, an apt translation from you with rhyme and reason. Respects.

Padmaja Iyengar
15-Sep-2013 00:06 AM