By murderous arrows of fire
My heart is stricken by thirst
The nights are sleepless
The days are burning and long
And relief there is none!
On the dry branches of the tree
The tired dove is cooing
A plaintive song.
Don’t lose heart
I am looking at the sky
I know you will come
In the form of a storm
To cool my stricken soul.
Translation of the song on summer – Darun agnibanere hridoy trishay hanere – by Rabindranath Tagore. The sultry summer of Bengal is a totally prosaic theme, but, as this song shows, to the poet any theme was good enough for a good song. Its best recording is by Debabrata Biswas. It is the first song of Debabrata’s most famous LP on seasonal songs – there are twelve of them, two each on the six seasons. The original with its swaralipi or notation is at http://www.rabindra-rachanabali.nltr.org/node/4820.
