Two Tagore Songs

Tagore classified his songs into a few broad themes. Puja, Prem, Prakriti etc. Prem means love. Prakriti means nature. These are easily translated but translating the word puja is a bit tricky here. Because generally by puja we mean religious rituals, functions etc. Tagore's Puja songs are not at all religious in that sense. In fact being a Brahmo himself he was against the idea of organised religion with gods and goddesses.

I think the word "spiritual" best describes the word Puja in the context of Tagore songs (if you are a Bengali and have a better suggestion please feel free to let me know). 

Now many, if not most Puja and Prem songs are interchangeable depending on how you interpret them. Some obvious love songs, you might discover, are classified as spiritual and some apparently spiritual songs are classified by Tagore as love songs. We ordinary mortals do not understand how the mind of geniuses work. 

I will discuss here two such songs. One is classified as Puja song or spiritual while the other is classified as a Love song while it could easily be a spiritual song where "you" could well mean God. But one is free to interpret it to have some other meaning. These two are two of my most favourite songs. They are quite famous among Tagore lovers. And the two songs are more or less similar in their thoughts.

One I sang and recorded to be played at a memorial for my mother. I sang it as my address to my then just departed mother. It is supposed to be a love song, as classified by Tagore. A song of longing and waiting in vain. It has a lot of pathos in the way the words are arranged, not to speak of the tune in which it is set and the tempo at which it is supposed to be sung.

It is about the waiting and longing for someone who you think might come some day and you are staying awake for that moment. But you are getting tired and feeling sleepy while waiting. The melody of the song has a pathos in it. It could be interpreted as a wait for a lover, a departed soul or God himself. It is entirely upto you how you want to interpret it. Because the setting is a temple somewhere in a dark forested area.

I shall write the Bengali version of the song first and then attempt a translation to explain the meaning. I will also try and find a link to the song I recorded for my mother. 

দীপ নিবে গেছে মম 

ধীরে ধীরে 

এসে তুমি যেও না 

গো ফিরে 

এ পথে যখন যাবে আঁধারে 

চিনিতে পাবে 

রাজনীগন্ধার গন্ধ 

ভরেছে মন্দিরে 

ধীরে ধীরে 

এসে তুমি যেও না 

গো ফিরে 

আমারে পড়িবে মনে কখন 

সে লাগি প্রহরে প্রহরে 

আমি গান গেয়ে জাগি 

ভয় পাছে শেষ রাতে ঘুম আসে 

আঁখি পাতে 

ক্লান্ত কন্ঠে মোর সুর ফুরায় 

যদি রে 

ধীরে ধীরে 

এসে তুমি যেও না 

গো ফিরে 

Now the translation. I am not sure if there is an official translation of it. I will attempt one without the rhyme. It will be a literal translation just to explain the meaning to any one who doesn't know Bengali. 

Dip* nibe gechhe momo 

My prayer lamp has flickered off

In the gentle breeze of the night

Please don't go back if you do come afterall

In your soft steps

You can find the way here in the darkness

From the tuberoses

That fill the temple with their fragrance 

Please don't go back if you do come afterall

In your soft steps

I don't know when you might remember me at last

That's why I stay awake throughout the night

Singing songs every hour

I fear my tired eye lids might close 

Towards the end of the night

When my music dies out in my tired throat

Please don't go back if you do come afterall

In your soft steps

Those who are not poetically inclined and have still read this far - Tagore is pleading for the lover not to go back even if she (since Tagore is a man I am assuming it's a she. In Bengali gender cannot be understood unless stated categorically) remembers about him and comes some time late. There are two reasons why she might go back, he fears. First the darkness because the lamp has blown out. Second she might find him asleep from the tiredness that comes from waiting in vain. But he is trying his best to stay awake. 

He possibly wants to be woken up. He doesn't say it. Certain words are best kept unstated, particularly in love.

Being an extremely emotional man every time I sing this song I break down crying. The emotion is too much for me to handle. 

* Dip in Bengali means the small butter lamp that is used in temples. The translation "lamp" doesn't quite convey the meaning of the soft gentle light that it produces in a dark temple in the jungle. 

The next one is a similar song of waiting but it's a Puja song. It's very famous and usually it is sung in spring time, particularly in the evening. 

Aaj jyotsna raate sabai gechhe bone 

আজ জ্যোৎস্না রাতে সবাই গেছে বনে 

বসন্তের এই মাতাল সমীরণে 

যাবো না গো যাবো না যে রইনু পড়ে ঘরের মাঝে 

এই নিরালায় রব আপন কোনে 

যাবো না এই মাতাল সমীরণে 

আমার এ ঘর বহু যতন করে 

ধুতে হবে মুছতে হবে মোরে 

আমারে যে জাগতে হবে কি জানি সে আসবে কবে 

যদি আমায় পড়ে তাহার মনে 

বসন্তের এই মাতাল সমীরণে 

Again I am not sure if there is an official translated version of this song. Here is my attempt at a literal translation to explain the meaning. 

This moonlit night everyone has gone to the forest

In this intoxicating springtime breeze

I won't go, I will stay alone in the solitude of my home

I won't go in this intoxicating springtime breeze

I have to keep this house clean, sweep the floors with care

I have to stay awake, you never know when He* might come

In case he remembers me in this intoxicating springtime breeze

In the last but one line I have used the pronoun He because it is classified as a Puja song. By He Tagore definitely means God. But we in Bengali do not use gender based pronouns. A person is "shay". It could be a he or she. We understand from the context. So we can freely interpret to mean as any person. 

I have no idea why Tagore made such an obvious love song turn into a spiritual song. A song of longing and waiting in the intoxicating breeze of springime that too on a moonlit night. The gentle breeze during a moonlit spring evening is extremely romantic in Bengal. Who wants to wait for God? You can only wait for your lover. Also the song is set to a faster tempo and cannot be sung with any pathos really. 

But as I said the mind of a genius is very difficult to understand for us ordinary mortals. 

As I discovered, I do not have these songs readily available to share. I shall record them some other time and then share. It will take time. Keep coming back to check. 

A dove story

First nesting. The blooming yellow orchid is on this side of the window.

A few months ago a pair of spotted doves had made a nest in one of the orchid tubs on the grill of my window. They used to visit my little window garden almost every day for a long time and then built the nest almost overnight when we were gone for a long weekend. It was quite successful in that the chicks hatched, the chicks grew and flew off the nest. This was in March 2024. The entire process took about a  month or so. I observed and took photographs of various stages of the process. 

Now they have come back and once again have started the process. This time I want to keep a day by day journal as a citizen science project. Here in Calcutta we call them box grills. They are installed on windows to discourage thieves. They are a foot or so projected outside the window so that you can use the space outside the window. People mostly dry their washed clothes there :-) I keep orchids on that grill with a curtain to cut back on the strong tropical sun. 

14th June 2024 - Day 1 

While opening the window in the morning today to water the plants, I startled the dove sitting on the old nest. I didn't realise it was there. It flew away. It was sitting with its tail touching the window pane. It was in the incubating pose. It has still not laid the eggs but I am more than certain it will do so in a day or so. I moved the tub (in which it had nested last time) a bit away from the window so that it does not touch the pane. It seemed to have cleaned the nest a bit. 

After the chicks flew away last time, it looked terribly dirty with their droppings. I was in fact wondering how they would ever nest here again. But they have. 

Didn't see them for the whole day. But heard. 

15th June 2024 - Day 2 

Evening 8 pm - it was still there on the nest. I think the eggs have already been laid. It is not flying off even when I open the window. I guess the first few hours/days they are so protective that they don't fly off easily.

Here is the note written in the morning. 

Morning ten o clock and it is sitting there again. Today I didn't open the window. Will do so when it goes away, if at all. I can see it from this side of the smoked glass.

Even at 11 am when I went back it was still sitting there. I opened the window thinking it was not there. But it was very much there. And it didn't move at all. I watered the plants. It made its body smaller and ducked its neck down but allowed me to carry on with my job for about a minute.  I am sure it has perhaps already laid the eggs. Or may be it was in the process of laying the eggs at that point of time. I had noticed this courage when the chicks had just hatched. It would just not fly out. Otherwise when it was just sitting on the eggs it would fly out to let me finish my job and then fly back again after I would be gone.

I am using the pronoun "it" because I am not sure if it is the mother or the father. If the egg laying process is on then it could only be the mother. The previous pair had one of the birds with a hooked bill. Possibly the female. This one that I saw this morning seemed much smaller and with a normal bill. Is it possible that the front of the bill had broken in the meantime and grew back normally? Not sure.

I am curious to know if the same old pair came back or it is the chicks that have now paired up. Do they get ready for parenthood so early in life ? Shuvankar-da thinks it is the same old pair and if the nest stays good they will repeatedly come and raise their chicks.

Note the crooked bill. This used to sit on the eggs in the day time. 

16th June 2024 - Day 3

Morning 10 am. I opened the window and watered the plants. The bird is sitting still in the nest. Last time when I would open the window the bird would fly off and sit on the branch of the mango tree behind and later come back. Of course towards the later stage it became more tolerant. This time it's just not budging. In fact I have not even actually seen the eggs so far.  This behaviour of absolutely not budging I saw when the chicks had just hatched. The parent would just not move, leaving the chicks exposed. 

I noticed the bill of the bird closely. It is straight. Also this bird is quite smaller than the previous ones. 

Afternoon 3 pm - at around 2 pm I decided to grease the rails of my window. These are aluminium sliding windows and they make a lot of squealing noise. Now that I am frequently opening and shutting the window I thought I would grease them to make it easier for the birds. I am sure they hate that noise as much as I do. So I greased the rails thoroughly. The bird didn't budge at all. 

I left the window open and went away. After some time at around 2:40 I noticed the nest was empty and there were those two jewels of white eggs sitting pretty there. I was so happy to see them. As if I have had two grand children. Just as I was preparing to bring the camera for a shot of the eggs I saw the other dove come in to sit. It is obviously the male. It's a little larger than the one I saw earlier in the day. And its bill is also straight. I photographed it. 

So the eggs are there and I can quite differentiate between the mom and dad. Mom is visibly smaller. Will keep observing every day. 

17th June 2024 - Day 4

12 noon. I just checked the nest while watering the plant. Moma dove is sitting. She didn't fly off and allowed me to water the plants from close proximity, as usual. In fact I have to extend my hand over its body and head to water one of the plants. She is fine with that. Just ducks a bit. 

I am more than convinced that this is a new pair and possibly the ones that had hatched in March. One of the birds from that lot looked visibly smaller from day one of hatching. That looks like is the new mother now. 

18th June 2024 - Day 5

No change in status. I watered the plants at 9.30 am. She was sitting there. Didn't fly out.