Compromise

My friends know that I translate a poem by Rabindranath Tagore every year on Tagore's birthday. I have been doing this since 2006, the year I started this blog. I recently realized that there was no easy way to find all of these translations in one place, and so here's a list of all that I have translated over the years.

• Poems

1. The River (This is my first translation, done when I was an undergrad)
2. The Palm Tree 
3. The Two Birds
4. The Hero
5. The Poet's Age
6. Africa 
7. Judgment
8. Identity
9. Small and Big
10. The Schoolmaster
11. Strange Ambitions
12. The Right Place
13. The Poet

• Tiny poems embedded within posts:

1. Revisiting Hyderabad
2. Momentary Rhyme
3. A Tiny Tagore Translation

• Prose:

1. The Wrong Heaven

Coming to this year's translation, this beautiful poem was one of a few suggested by my father. I liked all of them, but chose this one eventually because of no particular reason. Probably I was influenced by the fact that my wife Poulami knew the poem by heart. She also helped me with my translation, giving me feedback on the meanings of certain phrases to enhance my understanding. As usual, I tried to preserve the rhyme of the original Bengali poem, a quality that is usually missing from English translations of Tagore. So without further digressing, I present this year's translation.

Compromise

                                                     ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Today, tell your mind this,

Whatever comes, good or bad,

Accept the truth with ease.

            Some people may love you

              Others are never meant to,

            Some are ever grateful, others

              Don’t owe a cent to you.

            Some of it is their nature

              Some of it is yours, brother,

            Partly, the way of this world ---

              Not each one suits the other.

            Some will bluff you at times,

              At other times, you will bluff,

            You will get your share,

               Others get the remaining stuff.

            From times immemorial

              That’s how things have worked 

            How can you be so lucky that

              You’ll get through unmarked!

                      Today, tell your mind this,

                                                 Good or bad whatever may come

                      Accept the truth with ease.

            Weathering many a storm you reach

              The port of happiness to rest

            An underwater hidden cliff

              Strikes you inside the chest,

            Instantly your weary ribs

             Tremble with a painful creak---

            Does that mean with everyone

          A deathly quarrel you must seek?

           If you can stay afloat

              That’s the best thing to do,

          If you cannot, then quietly

              Sink without much ado.

          That wouldn’t be unusual,

              It’s a common incident ---

            Where people don’t fear

              Shipwrecks are most frequent.

                                                         So tell your mind this,

                                                  Whatever comes, good or bad,

            Accept the truth with ease.

          Not everyone is sized for you

            Nor you made in everyone’s size,

          You seem to die of someone’s shove

            By your squeeze, someone dies---

          Still, if we think it through,

            Over everything must we vie?

          The proper approach can give

            A lot of happiness if you try.

          The sky remains as blue as ever,

            Sweet seems the light of dawn,

          When death arrives, we find

            Better to live than to be gone.

          For those whom we closed our eyes

            And cried out a tearful sea

          Even without them we find

            The world is pretty good to see.

                                                  So tell your mind this,

                                             Whatever comes, good or bad,

           Accept the truth with ease.

          At the sunset if you sit,

             Let your large shadow loom

           And with your own fault

             Fill your life with gloom,

           If fate you choose to fight

            And dig yourself a grave,

           Then please finish this task

            As soon as you can, we crave.

           Weep a while if you must

            Filling pitchers from your eyes,

           With your mind then somehow

             Brother, compromise.

           Then, in your dark chamber

              A lamp you must shine---

           Forget, brother, with whom

              Your ideas don’t align.

                                       So tell your mind this,

                                Whatever comes, good or bad,

            Accept the truth with ease.

(Translated by Sugata Banerji)