Poems of the day: Rabindranath Tagore

I recently had the pleasure of seeing Philip Glass's Satyagraha at ENO with a friend. It was an amazing production, and we enjoyed it very much. Glass gives each of the three acts the name of a person relevant to Gandhi's life; the second act is named for the Mahatma's contemporary, Rabindranath Tagore.

Tagore wrote in Bengali, but he was also fluent in English. These translations are mostly his own. His fans included W B Yeats (who wrote an introduction to Tagore's collection Gitanjali, as well as lending a hand with some of the translations) and Anna Akhmatova (who translated much of Tagore's work into Russian).

If you know a Tagore poem, chances are it's this one. (It was later set to music by Richard Hageman; here is Kiri te Kanawa singing it.)

Do not go, my love, without asking my leave.
I have watched all night, and now my eyes are heavy with sleep.
I fear lest I lose you when I am sleeping.
Do not go, my love, without asking my leave.

I start up and stretch my hands to touch you.
I ask myself, "Is it a dream?"
Could I but entangle your feet with my heart and hold them fast to my breast!
Do not go, my love, without asking my leave.

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