Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #52 Tagore's "Last Curtain"

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday September 30th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at our last weekend meditation of September 2018. I have another beautiful poem by Rabindranath Tagore to challenge you. As all the weekend meditations were this month. You have to "distil" a haiku (or tanka) from the given "long poem" by Tagore.

The poem by Tagore is titled "Last Curtain" and I think it don't need further explanation. To make your weekend meditation challenge a bit more difficult I love to challenge you to create a Troiku with the haiku you have distilled from this "long poem" or the haiku you created inspired on this poem. (more about Troiku you can find above in the menu).

Rabindranath Tagore

Here is the "long poem" by Tagore:

Last Curtain

I know that the day will come 
when my sight of this earth shall be lost, 
and life will take its leave in silence, 
drawing the last curtain over my eyes. 

Yet stars will watch at night, 
and morning rise as before, 
and hours heave like sea waves casting up pleasures and pains. 

When I think of this end of my moments, 
the barrier of the moments breaks 
and I see by the light of death 
thy world with its careless treasures. 
Rare is its lowliest seat, 
rare is its meanest of lives. 

Things that I longed for in vain 
and things that I got 
---let them pass. 
Let me but truly possess 
the things that I ever spurned 
and overlooked.

© Rabindranath Tagore

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday September 30th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until October 7th at noon (CEST). Have an awesome weekend!

Carpe Diem's Weekend Meditation #51 Tagore's "Endless Time"

!!! Open for your submissions next Sunday September 23rd at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Time flies. September is running towards its end and we will enter the last quarter of 2018. Really time flies. Tomorrow is already yesterday as I create this new weekend meditation. I ran through Tagore's poetry and found a nice poem about time. It is titled "endless time" and that's the poem to work with this weekend.

But let us first make a quick trip back in time. Here at CDHK we have had earlier posts about time and time is changing ... I remember an episode about Khalil Gibran about time and maybe you can remember that episode in our Santiago De Compostela month. I will give you the links to those posts at the end of this weekend meditation.

Okay ... back to the poem by Tagore to work with this weekend. Try to catch the essence of this poem in a haiku or tanka, in other words try to distil your haiku or tanka from this poem or ... and that's okay too you can share a haiku or tanka inspired on this poem by Tagore.

Endless Time (© Dr. Feelgood)

Endless Time

Time is endless in thy hands, my lord. 
There is none to count thy minutes. 

Days and nights pass and ages bloom and fade like flowers. 
Thou knowest how to wait. 

Thy centuries follow each other perfecting a small wild flower. 

We have no time to lose, 
and having no time we must scramble for a chance. 
We are too poor to be late. 

And thus it is that time goes by 
while I give it to every querulous man who claims it, 
and thine altar is empty of all offerings to the last. 

At the end of the day I hasten in fear lest thy gate be shut; 
but I find that yet there is time. 

© Rabindranath Tagore

What a wonderful poem this is. It has a rich meaning I think. It describes the circle of life or the path of life so to say. We all are on our path of life making choices that will influence our life. Sometimes our choices are not good. For example: I once took the path of the occult and that brought me illness and suicidal thoughts, but praise ... I found my way back and took the right path again.
Time sometimes plays with us to learn us the secrets of a righteous life and that's (in my opinion) the deeper meaning of this poem by Tagore.

Here are the links to the mentioned episodes:

Episode 914
Episode 1124

And not so long ago (last summer) I challenged you to create a Troiku on Time that episode you can find HERE.

Well ... time ... it's an everlasting theme and I hoe that you can find the inspiration this weekend to meditate and contemplate about time and share your haiku or tanka "distilled" from the poem by Tagore with us all next Sunday September 23rd.

This weekend-meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday September 23rd at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until September 30th at noon (CEST). Have a great weekend!

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge September 2018 Chained Together III (12) clouds and waves

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Kai. And what a wonderful month this already is through all your wonderful completions / continuations of the Tan Renga this month. I have another beauty for you. This time I hope you will complete this Tan Renga starting with a nice haiku by Dolores of Ada's Poetry Alcove inspired on a poem by Rabindranath Tagore that we had in one of our recent  weekend meditations.

anchor (image found on pixabay)

Here is the haiku ("hokku") to work with and complete into a Tan Renga by adding your 2nd two-lined stanza:

clouds and waves
carry my dreams away
tugging my anchor

© Dolores

I have given it a try (of course), so here is my Tan Renga:

after a restless night I awake
in the arms of my muse

© Chèvrefeuille

Not as strong as I had hoped, but I like the twist in this 2nd stanza. And now it's up to you. Have fun!

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until 24th at noon (CEST). I hope to publish our new episode later on.

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #50 Rabindranath Tagore's "where shadow chases light"

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday September 16th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

For this weekend meditation I have chosen another wonderful poem by Tagore to work with, but this time I love to challenge you a little bit more.

At the start of this month I told you that every weekend meditation would be a "Carpe Diem Distillation" episode, in that special feature the goal is to create a haiku (this time only haiku) from a given so called "long poem". This weekend I have "sympathy" as the poem to work with, also a beautiful poem by Tagore.

There is one difference with the other two weekend meditations we have had this month. This time you have to create a Troiku with your distilled haiku. More about Troiku you can find above in the menu. It's a creative way of haiku-ing invented by your host.

Surreal Landscape With Giant Buddha (image found on Shutterstock)

And now to our new poem by Tagore,


This is my delight,

thus to wait and watch at the wayside

where shadow chases light

and the rain comes in the wake of the summer.

Messengers, with tidings from unknown skies,

greet me and speed along the road.

My heart is glad within,

and the breath of the passing breeze is sweet.

From dawn till dusk I sit here before my door,

and I know that of a sudden

the happy moment will arrive when I shall see.

In the meanwhile I smile and I sing all alone.

In the meanwhile the air is filling with the perfume of promise.

©️ Rabindranath Tagore

Well ... try to create a haiku (only haiku this time) from this poem by Tagore and than create a Troiku with your "distilled" haiku.

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday September 16th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until September 23rd at noon (CEST). Have a great weekend!

Carpe Diem's Weekend Meditiation #49 Clouds and Waves by Rabindranath Tagore

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday September 9th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new CDHK Weekend Meditation. As you know this month all the Weekend Meditations are a kind of "distillations". What does that mean? Well I will give you a long poem and you have to catch the essence of the long poem in a haiku or tanka.

This month I have chosen all poems by Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), last weekend I challenged you with a poem extracted from his world famous "Gitanjali" and this weekend I have found a beautiful poem written by him on poemhunter.com "clouds and waves".

Clouds And Waves (taken from Panoramio.com, website doesn't exist anymore)

Clouds And Waves:

Mother, the folk who live up in the clouds call out to me-

"We play from the time we wake till the day ends.

We play with the golden dawn, we play with the silver moon."

I ask, "But how am I to get up to you ?"

They answer, "Come to the edge of the earth, lift up your

hands to the sky, and you will be taken up into the clouds."

"My mother is waiting for me at home, "I say, "How can I leave

her and come?"

Then they smile and float away.

But I know a nicer game than that, mother.

I shall be the cloud and you the moon.

I shall cover you with both my hands, and our house-top will

be the blue sky.

The folk who live in the waves call out to me-

"We sing from morning till night; on and on we travel and know

not where we pass."

I ask, "But how am I to join you?"

They tell me, "Come to the edge of the shore and stand with

your eyes tight shut, and you will be carried out upon the waves."

I say, "My mother always wants me at home in the everything-

how can I leave her and go?"

They smile, dance and pass by.

But I know a better game than that.

I will be the waves and you will be a strange shore.

I shall roll on and on and on, and break upon your lap with

laughter.

And no one in the world will know where we both are.

   

©️ Rabindranath Tagore

A wonderful poem. I am exited to read your responses, your "distillations". Well have an awesome weekend.

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday September 9th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until September 16th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new regular episode around that same time.

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #48 Tagore's Gitanjali

New Logo Weekend Meditation Autumn 2018

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday September 2nd at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the first Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation of September 2018. Meteorological autumn starts this weekend on September 1st, so I have created a new logo for our CD Weekend Meditation. The above image shows you the beauty of colorful autumn leaves and those colors are to me what makes autumn my favorite season, maybe it's that unconscious connection with Basho, because he loved autumn dearly not only for it's colors, but also for the beauty of the moon and the deeper meaning of "letting go" and departure.

Let me first tell you what September is bringing us this year. Maybe you can remember that I asked you to choose between a whole month about Rabindranath Tagore or a whole month of Tan Renga Challenges. I understand that you all had some difficulties with this choice, so I have decided (as Xenia proposed) to bring both themes into this month. This month we will have all Tan Renga Challenges as our regular episodes, but the weekend meditations will be all wonderful poems by Rabindranath Tagore. Starting today with his world famous Gitanjali poem(s).

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)

The weekend meditations will be all "distillations". I will give you a poem by Tagore and I challenge you to create haiku or tanka from it or bring the "long poem" back to its essential meaning and write a haiku (or tanka) about it.

The Logo I Used For This Special Feature Here At CDHK

Let me first tell you a little bit more about Rabindranath Tagore.

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), was a Bengali poet, short-story writer, song composer, playwright, essayist, and painter who introduced new prose and verse forms and the use of colloquial language into Bengali literature, thereby freeing it from traditional models based on classical Sanskrit. He was highly influential in introducing Indian culture to the West and vice versa, and he is generally regarded as the outstanding creative artist of early 20th-century India. In 1913 he became the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

One of his most famous works is Gītāñjali, a collection of poetry. It was published in India in 1910. Tagore then translated it into prose poems in English, as Gitanjali: Song Offerings, and it was published in 1912 with an introduction by William Butler Yeats.

Medieval Indian lyrics of devotion provided Tagore’s model for the poems of Gītāñjali. He also composed music for these lyrics. Love is the principal subject, although some poems detail the internal conflict between spiritual longings and earthly desires. Much of his imagery is drawn from nature, and the dominant mood is minor-key and muted. The collection helped win the Nobel Prize for Literature for Tagore in 1913, but some later critics did not agree that it represents Tagore’s finest work.

Gitanjali, song offerings (cover)

Gitanjali, Song Offerings ... it sounds amazing, but can you bring it back to its essential meaning? Can you bring the following poem back to its essential and create a haiku (or tanka) with it? Well that's the goal for this weekend meditation ...

The time that my journey takes is long and the way of it long.

I came out on the chariot of the first gleam of light, 

and pursued my voyage through the wildernesses of worlds

leaving my track on many a star and planet.

It is the most distant course that comes nearest to thyself,

and that training is the most intricate which leads to the utter simplicity of a tune.

The traveller has to knock at every alien door to come to his own, 

and one has to wander through all the outer worlds to reach 

the innermost shrine at the end.

My eyes strayed far and wide before 

I shut them and said `Here art thou!'

The question and the cry `Oh, where?' melt into tears of a thousand streams 

and deluge the world with the flood of the assurance `I am!'

© Rabindranath Tagore (taken from "Gitanjali")

A nice task for this weekend I think ... so have fun, be inspired and enjoy your weekend.

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday September 2nd at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until September 9th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our first regular episode around that time too.

Carpe Diem #1496 Rabindra Sangeet, the music of Bengal

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Yesterday we started our trip through India and today we will stay in India too. Today we will visit the region known as Bengal (Bangladesh and India). In this region there is a kind of music that has only words written by Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) this music is known as Rabindra Sangeet.

Let me tell you first a little bit more about Rabindranath Tagore:

Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali polymath, a poet, musician and artist who reshaped Bengali literature and music, as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became in 1913 the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Tagore's poetic songs were viewed as spiritual and mercurial; however, his "elegant prose and magical poetry" remain largely unknown outside Bengal. He is sometimes referred to as "the Bard of Bengal".

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)

Tagore has written wonderful poems and I love to give you one to read before we are going to listen to the music known as Rabindra Sangeet, the music of Bengal.

In the morning I cast my net into the sea.
I dragged up from the dark abyss things of strange aspect and strange beauty -- some shone like a smile, some glistened like tears, and some were flushed like the cheeks of a bride.
When with the day's burden I went home, my love was sitting in the garden idly tearing the leaves of a flower.
I hesitated for a moment, and then placed at her feet all that I had dragged up, and stood silent.
She glanced at them and said, 'What strange things are these? I know not of what use they are!'
I bowed my head in shame and thought, 'I have not fought for these, I did not buy them in the market; they are not fit gifts for her.'
Then the whole night through I flung them one by one into the street.
In the morning travelers came; they picked them up and carried them into far countries.  

© Rabindranath Tagore

Awesome poem I would say, but I am a big fan of Tagore's prose and poetry, so maybe I am prejudiced. He has written wonderful poems. (Maybe we can do a whole month about Tagaore's prose and poetry?)

Rabindra Sangeet also known as Tagore Songs, are songs written and composed by Tagore. He wrote more than 2000 songs. The songs have distinctive characteristics in the music of Bengal, popular in India and Bangladesh. It is characterised by its distinctive rendition while singing which includes a significant amount of ornamentation like meend, murki, etc. and is filled with expressions of romanticism. The music is mostly based on Hindustani classical music, Carnatic Classical Music, Western tunes and the inherent Folkmusic of Bengal.
 

 

What a nice beautiful song. I hope it will inspire you to create haiku, tanka or other form of Japanese poetry.

 

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 20th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our next episode later on.