by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941)
Translation by Anonymous / Unidentified Author
If thou speakest not
Language: English after the Bangla (Bengali)
Available translation(s): GER
If thou speakest not I will fill my heart with thy silence and endure it. I will keep still and wait like the night with starry vigil and its head bent low with patience. The morning will surely come, the darkness will vanish, and thy voice pour down in golden streams breaking through the sky. Then thy words will take wing in songs from every one of my birds' nests, and thy melodies will break forth in flowers in all my forest groves.
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Text Authorship:
- by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in Gitanjali, no. 19, first published 1912 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in Bangla (Bengali) by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in গীতাঞ্জলি (Gitanjali), no. 19 [text unavailable]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Margaret Carter Metcalf (d. 1957), "If thou speakest not ", 1921 [ high voice and piano ], from Four Poems, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Michael John Trotta (b. 1978), "I will keep still", published 2012 [ satb chorus a cappella ], Carl Fischer [sung text not yet checked]
- by Gwyneth Walker (b. 1947), "Beloved - If you speakest not", 1999 [ SATB chorus and string quartet ], from The Golden Harp, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in French (Français), a translation by André Gide (1869 - 1951) , no title, appears in Gitanjali (L'Offrande lyrique), no. 19, first published 1914 ; composed by Jean-Émile-Paul Cras.
- Also set in Italian (Italiano), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Franco Alfano.
- Also set in Spanish (Español), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Washington Castro.
- Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
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- Also set in Swedish (Svenska), a translation by Andrea Butenschön (1866 - 1948) , first published 1915 ; composed by Edvin Kallstenius.
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Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- SWE Swedish (Svenska) (Andrea Butenschön) , first published 1915
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2004-01-17
Line count: 19
Word count: 83
Se taci
Language: Italian (Italiano) after the English
Se taci riempirò il mio cuore del tuo silenzio e lo saprò sopportare. Starò immobile ad attendere, paziente, a testa china, Verrà certamente il mattino, svanirà il buio e la tua voce si riverserà per il cielo in torrenti d'oro. Allora, sulle ali del canto, dal nido di ognuno dei miei uccellini, si leveranno le tue parole, E le tue melodie fioriranno in tutte le mie foreste... in tutte le mie foreste!
Text Authorship:
- by Anonymous / Unidentified Author [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in English by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in Gitanjali, no. 19, first published 1912
Based on:
- a text in Bangla (Bengali) by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title, appears in গীতাঞ্জলি (Gitanjali), no. 19 [text unavailable]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Franco Alfano (1876 - 1954), "Se taci", 1947 [voice and piano], from Sette Liriche, no. 5. [ sung text verified 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2017-04-16
Line count: 15
Word count: 72