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The Cycle of Spring
The Cycle of Spring is a translation of Phalguni. It was one of the two Tagore dramas associated with the festivals of seasons, the other being Autumn Festival. The play is full of nature. There are songs in the rustling bamboo leaves, in birds' nests, and in blossoming branches. They are the heralds of spring.
- GenresIndiaPoetryNobel Prize
121 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1916
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129 people want to read
About the author
Rabindranath Tagore
2,574 books4,250 followersAwarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 "because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West."
Tagore modernised Bengali art by spurning rigid classical forms and resisting linguistic strictures. His novels, stories, songs, dance-dramas, and essays spoke to topics political and personal. Gitanjali (Song Offerings), Gora (Fair-Faced), and Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World) are his best-known works, and his verse, short stories, and novels were acclaimed—or panned—for their lyricism, colloquialism, naturalism, and unnatural contemplation. His compositions were chosen by two nations as national anthems: India's Jana Gana Mana and Bangladesh's Amar Shonar Bangla.
The complete works of Rabindranath Tagore (রবীন্দ্র রচনাবলী) in the original Bengali are now available at these third-party websites:
http://www.tagoreweb.in/
http://www.rabindra-rachanabali.nltr....
Tagore modernised Bengali art by spurning rigid classical forms and resisting linguistic strictures. His novels, stories, songs, dance-dramas, and essays spoke to topics political and personal. Gitanjali (Song Offerings), Gora (Fair-Faced), and Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World) are his best-known works, and his verse, short stories, and novels were acclaimed—or panned—for their lyricism, colloquialism, naturalism, and unnatural contemplation. His compositions were chosen by two nations as national anthems: India's Jana Gana Mana and Bangladesh's Amar Shonar Bangla.
The complete works of Rabindranath Tagore (রবীন্দ্র রচনাবলী) in the original Bengali are now available at these third-party websites:
http://www.tagoreweb.in/
http://www.rabindra-rachanabali.nltr....
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
March 26, 2024
The cycle of the seasons is a slowly unfolding miracle that comes to seem more miraculous the older one gets. As winter turns into spring, and the world comes back to life, one thinks about the winters that one has survived, and one contemplates one’s own small place in the greater cycle of life. The Indian author Rabindranath Tagore evidently contemplated such issues as well, for he had seen 56 winters go by when he published The Cycle of Spring in 1917. This marvelous little play combines comedy, music, and philosophy in an entrancing way.
A lot of people outside of India haven’t heard of Rabindranath Tagore – and that is a shame, as Tagore is one of the most important writers in world literature. Among other distinctions, Tagore was the first non-European ever to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, in 1913. Born in Calcutta, Tagore was known as “the Bard of Bengal,” and was renowned, throughout the Indian subcontinent and beyond, for the way in which he combined lyricism of language and imagery with perceptive observation of human character. The Cycle of Spring provides, for the reader from outside India, a fine introduction to Tagore’s work.
The play’s prelude begins as a number of Shakespeare plays begin - with a king who is self-obsessed and more than a bit silly. The King has found two grey hairs behind his ear, and is therefore obsessed with the idea that his remaining time on Earth is short. Contemplating his own demise, he cannot bother with the things that are supposed to be on a king’s mind – for example, the little fact that “there is a famine in Nagapatam”. The Vizier tries in vain to remind the King that the Chinese Ambassador has arrived at court for an official visit, but the King cannot be bothered with such small considerations. After all, he has two grey hairs!
The King then sends for his pundit, Sruti-bhushan. Now, if hearing the word “pundit” makes you think of “talking heads” on cable news, please be advised that the original term, pandit (पंडित), refers to any wise and learned teacher within the context of Hindu religion, law, and culture. The Pundit, who clearly knows which side his naan is buttered on, reads the King a couple of verses from a book of devotions; and quicker than you can say “bad royal decisions,” the King is giving the Pundit the entire province of Kanchanpur, and having the Pundit’s wife decked with expensive jewelry! Meanwhile, the people of Nagapatam are still starving.
The Poet Kabi-shekhar meanwhile tells the King not to worry about the grey hairs, stating that “On that white ground, Nature will paint new colours”, and reminding the King that each of our lives is but part of a cycle of renewal. The Poet’s philosophy appeals to the King, and the King asks if there is any way in which the Poet can help the King to escape from a muddled state of mind. Most assuredly, says the Poet – who, when the King asks what the Poet’s musical poetry actually says, replies,
King, it says, “I exist.” Don’t you know the meaning of the first cry of the new-born child? The child, when it is born, hears at once the cries of the Earth and water and sky, which surround him – and they all cry to him, “We exist,” and his tiny little heart responds, and cries out in its turn, “I exist.” My poetry is like the cry of that new-born child. It is a response to the cry of the Universe.
The King then asks that the Poet stage his musical play, with the title of “The Disrobing of Winter,” the subject of which is as follows: “In the play of the seasons, each year, the mask of the Old Man, Winter, is pulled off, and the form of Spring is revealed in all its beauty. Thus we see that the old is ever new.” And then, in a manner that may remind some readers of the play-within-a-play element of Shakespeare plays like Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the rest of The Cycle of Spring shows the staging of the Poet’s play.
Central to the play, as its first act reveals, are a group of irreverent youths who seem to symbolize the youthful, effervescent, uncontainable quality of springtime. It is in vain that characters like Dada the poet-philosopher, or Chandra, try to get the youths to behave and attend. The youths’ leader embodies the group’s playfulness, stating that “I never give answers. I lead on from one question to another. That is my leadership.”
In the second act, a group of boys and girls, Spring’s Heralds, try to take away Old Winter’s cloak of age. Old Winter asks to be left alone – “Leave me, let me go./I sail for the bleak North, for the peace of the frozen shore” – but the Heralds of Spring are having none of that:
Life’s spies are we, lurking in ambush everywhere.
We wait to rob you of your last savings of withered hours,
To scatter them in the wayward winds.
We shall bind you in flower chains where Spring keeps his captives,
For we know you carry your jewels of youth
Hidden in your grey rags.
A Ferryman and a Watchman are as helpless as everyone else to hold back the irrepressible mirth and spirit of these spring-like youths (though they enjoy Dada’s poetry). An Oilman says that his child has been stolen by the Old Winter Man, and a blind Minstrel reports that he can lead the youths to the old man. And when, after all this talking and singing and searching, the Old Man is finally tracked to a cave, the Leader describes the end of the search thus:
You seemed old.
And then you came out of the cave – and now you look like a boy.
It seems just as if we had seen you for the first time.
Chandra adds that “You are first every time. You are first over and over again.” And thus the theme of renewal, within the context of springtime as the rebirth of the year, receives one final bit of emphasis.
I am certain that there any number of culturally specific referents within The Cycle of Spring that I am missing. While I have visited India, and enjoyed my time there – I have particularly fond memories of Jaipur – I cannot claim to know Indian culture as well as I would like to. Additionally, as any play is meant to be staged, I would think that one would get more from watching The Cycle of Spring on stage – hearing the music, seeing the king’s silly behaviour during the prelude – than from reading it.
Nonetheless, on this cool spring morning in Northern Virginia, as the sun dutifully does its best to peek out from among the clouds, I can say that The Cycle of Spring is a delightful play to read, combining humour, rich imagery of nature, poetry of profound musicality, and some intriguing philosophical themes.
A lot of people outside of India haven’t heard of Rabindranath Tagore – and that is a shame, as Tagore is one of the most important writers in world literature. Among other distinctions, Tagore was the first non-European ever to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, in 1913. Born in Calcutta, Tagore was known as “the Bard of Bengal,” and was renowned, throughout the Indian subcontinent and beyond, for the way in which he combined lyricism of language and imagery with perceptive observation of human character. The Cycle of Spring provides, for the reader from outside India, a fine introduction to Tagore’s work.
The play’s prelude begins as a number of Shakespeare plays begin - with a king who is self-obsessed and more than a bit silly. The King has found two grey hairs behind his ear, and is therefore obsessed with the idea that his remaining time on Earth is short. Contemplating his own demise, he cannot bother with the things that are supposed to be on a king’s mind – for example, the little fact that “there is a famine in Nagapatam”. The Vizier tries in vain to remind the King that the Chinese Ambassador has arrived at court for an official visit, but the King cannot be bothered with such small considerations. After all, he has two grey hairs!
The King then sends for his pundit, Sruti-bhushan. Now, if hearing the word “pundit” makes you think of “talking heads” on cable news, please be advised that the original term, pandit (पंडित), refers to any wise and learned teacher within the context of Hindu religion, law, and culture. The Pundit, who clearly knows which side his naan is buttered on, reads the King a couple of verses from a book of devotions; and quicker than you can say “bad royal decisions,” the King is giving the Pundit the entire province of Kanchanpur, and having the Pundit’s wife decked with expensive jewelry! Meanwhile, the people of Nagapatam are still starving.
The Poet Kabi-shekhar meanwhile tells the King not to worry about the grey hairs, stating that “On that white ground, Nature will paint new colours”, and reminding the King that each of our lives is but part of a cycle of renewal. The Poet’s philosophy appeals to the King, and the King asks if there is any way in which the Poet can help the King to escape from a muddled state of mind. Most assuredly, says the Poet – who, when the King asks what the Poet’s musical poetry actually says, replies,
King, it says, “I exist.” Don’t you know the meaning of the first cry of the new-born child? The child, when it is born, hears at once the cries of the Earth and water and sky, which surround him – and they all cry to him, “We exist,” and his tiny little heart responds, and cries out in its turn, “I exist.” My poetry is like the cry of that new-born child. It is a response to the cry of the Universe.
The King then asks that the Poet stage his musical play, with the title of “The Disrobing of Winter,” the subject of which is as follows: “In the play of the seasons, each year, the mask of the Old Man, Winter, is pulled off, and the form of Spring is revealed in all its beauty. Thus we see that the old is ever new.” And then, in a manner that may remind some readers of the play-within-a-play element of Shakespeare plays like Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the rest of The Cycle of Spring shows the staging of the Poet’s play.
Central to the play, as its first act reveals, are a group of irreverent youths who seem to symbolize the youthful, effervescent, uncontainable quality of springtime. It is in vain that characters like Dada the poet-philosopher, or Chandra, try to get the youths to behave and attend. The youths’ leader embodies the group’s playfulness, stating that “I never give answers. I lead on from one question to another. That is my leadership.”
In the second act, a group of boys and girls, Spring’s Heralds, try to take away Old Winter’s cloak of age. Old Winter asks to be left alone – “Leave me, let me go./I sail for the bleak North, for the peace of the frozen shore” – but the Heralds of Spring are having none of that:
Life’s spies are we, lurking in ambush everywhere.
We wait to rob you of your last savings of withered hours,
To scatter them in the wayward winds.
We shall bind you in flower chains where Spring keeps his captives,
For we know you carry your jewels of youth
Hidden in your grey rags.
A Ferryman and a Watchman are as helpless as everyone else to hold back the irrepressible mirth and spirit of these spring-like youths (though they enjoy Dada’s poetry). An Oilman says that his child has been stolen by the Old Winter Man, and a blind Minstrel reports that he can lead the youths to the old man. And when, after all this talking and singing and searching, the Old Man is finally tracked to a cave, the Leader describes the end of the search thus:
You seemed old.
And then you came out of the cave – and now you look like a boy.
It seems just as if we had seen you for the first time.
Chandra adds that “You are first every time. You are first over and over again.” And thus the theme of renewal, within the context of springtime as the rebirth of the year, receives one final bit of emphasis.
I am certain that there any number of culturally specific referents within The Cycle of Spring that I am missing. While I have visited India, and enjoyed my time there – I have particularly fond memories of Jaipur – I cannot claim to know Indian culture as well as I would like to. Additionally, as any play is meant to be staged, I would think that one would get more from watching The Cycle of Spring on stage – hearing the music, seeing the king’s silly behaviour during the prelude – than from reading it.
Nonetheless, on this cool spring morning in Northern Virginia, as the sun dutifully does its best to peek out from among the clouds, I can say that The Cycle of Spring is a delightful play to read, combining humour, rich imagery of nature, poetry of profound musicality, and some intriguing philosophical themes.
August 19, 2016
É daqueles livros que se começa a ler o primeiro poema e se sabe que vai para a prateleira dos favoritos.
June 18, 2015
The play was about, I think, how Spring conquers the earth with its beauty and spirit. It is a simple moral message about how one must accept the changes in oneself without the fear of an inevitable death and should embrace the new changes as if one is going to live perpetually without an end. All these things were represented by the change in seasons, precisely from cold grey Winter to new full of life Spring.
I was moved by how the Poet relates his poetry to communication between a new born baby and the world.
"Don't you know the meaning of the first cry of the new-born child? The child, when it is born, hears at once the cries of the earth and water and sky, which surround him,—and they all cry to him, "We exist," and his tiny little heart responds, and cries out in its turn, "I exist." My poetry is like the cry of that new-born child. It is a response to the cry of the Universe."
This book is full of beautiful songs and carefree youth. I love Tagore's works. They simplify the meaning of life, I think.
I was moved by how the Poet relates his poetry to communication between a new born baby and the world.
"Don't you know the meaning of the first cry of the new-born child? The child, when it is born, hears at once the cries of the earth and water and sky, which surround him,—and they all cry to him, "We exist," and his tiny little heart responds, and cries out in its turn, "I exist." My poetry is like the cry of that new-born child. It is a response to the cry of the Universe."
This book is full of beautiful songs and carefree youth. I love Tagore's works. They simplify the meaning of life, I think.
October 21, 2025
Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941), destacado representante de la literatura bengalí y oriental moderna, fue poeta, novelista, dramaturgo y filósofo. En 1913 recibió el Premio Nobel de Literatura, convirtiéndose en el primer autor no europeo en obtenerlo, gracias a Gitanjali, obra que exalta la espiritualidad y la comunión del hombre con la naturaleza.
Ciclo de la primavera (Basanta Utsav o Spring Cycle) pertenece a su etapa madura, cuando Tagore ya gozaba de prestigio internacional. Escrita en la India colonial, la obra refleja su intento por rescatar la identidad cultural bengalí y fusionar la sensibilidad poética oriental con elementos occidentales. Su estilo, ligado al modernismo espiritualista, se caracteriza por el uso de metáforas naturales, un tono místico y la exaltación del amor universal.
En Ciclo de la primavera la estación del renacimiento está como símbolo de la regeneración interior y la búsqueda de armonía entre el ser humano y la naturaleza. El texto es lírico, a veces casi ceremonial, y sugiere una renovación emocional frente al paso del tiempo. Está marcada por imágenes sensoriales: flores, viento, canto, agua, luz; recursos que el autor emplea para expresar el ciclo vital y espiritual.
Sin embargo, a pesar de sus imágenes y su musicalidad, el estilo de Tagore resulta excesivamente idealizado para el lector contemporáneo. Su lenguaje, lleno de metáforas sobre la pureza, la divinidad o la naturaleza como símbolo de lo eterno, puede percibirse como cliché o ambiguo, especialmente cuando repite fórmulas sentimentales sin un desarrollo emocional profundo. La espiritualidad que propone —aunque genuina en su contexto cultural— puede parecer distante, repetitiva o abstracta. En ciertos pasajes, la poesía se diluye en un exceso de simbolismo y pierde fuerza narrativa o emocional.
Ciclo de la primavera (Basanta Utsav o Spring Cycle) pertenece a su etapa madura, cuando Tagore ya gozaba de prestigio internacional. Escrita en la India colonial, la obra refleja su intento por rescatar la identidad cultural bengalí y fusionar la sensibilidad poética oriental con elementos occidentales. Su estilo, ligado al modernismo espiritualista, se caracteriza por el uso de metáforas naturales, un tono místico y la exaltación del amor universal.
En Ciclo de la primavera la estación del renacimiento está como símbolo de la regeneración interior y la búsqueda de armonía entre el ser humano y la naturaleza. El texto es lírico, a veces casi ceremonial, y sugiere una renovación emocional frente al paso del tiempo. Está marcada por imágenes sensoriales: flores, viento, canto, agua, luz; recursos que el autor emplea para expresar el ciclo vital y espiritual.
Sin embargo, a pesar de sus imágenes y su musicalidad, el estilo de Tagore resulta excesivamente idealizado para el lector contemporáneo. Su lenguaje, lleno de metáforas sobre la pureza, la divinidad o la naturaleza como símbolo de lo eterno, puede percibirse como cliché o ambiguo, especialmente cuando repite fórmulas sentimentales sin un desarrollo emocional profundo. La espiritualidad que propone —aunque genuina en su contexto cultural— puede parecer distante, repetitiva o abstracta. En ciertos pasajes, la poesía se diluye en un exceso de simbolismo y pierde fuerza narrativa o emocional.
August 6, 2023
Such a wise creation!
If you're on your spiritual journey, this book will give you some great insights into the worlds of light and darkness. Every spiritual being will meet someone significant in their life, who will be like Chandra. The devil uses such ignorant and carefree souls, and tempts them to attack wise souls like dada. He doesn't do any work himself but hires vulnerable people to do his task of convincing the humanity that there's no God and only his worshippers exist. However, the contrary is the truth. Devilish souls exist all around us in the form of the Leader, Chandra, and their gangs. Through their bad secret societies and money or sociopolitical powers, they've been ruling this world for ever and ever. Yet, God arrives like the Old Man and takes away his people with him, while no Chandra can ever catch him. I'm amazed by the higher self and deeper spiritual knowledge of the author from the older times he had been living in. Rare people possess it nowadays.
If you're on your spiritual journey, this book will give you some great insights into the worlds of light and darkness. Every spiritual being will meet someone significant in their life, who will be like Chandra. The devil uses such ignorant and carefree souls, and tempts them to attack wise souls like dada. He doesn't do any work himself but hires vulnerable people to do his task of convincing the humanity that there's no God and only his worshippers exist. However, the contrary is the truth. Devilish souls exist all around us in the form of the Leader, Chandra, and their gangs. Through their bad secret societies and money or sociopolitical powers, they've been ruling this world for ever and ever. Yet, God arrives like the Old Man and takes away his people with him, while no Chandra can ever catch him. I'm amazed by the higher self and deeper spiritual knowledge of the author from the older times he had been living in. Rare people possess it nowadays.
February 17, 2018
The play, “The Cycle of Spring” is a morality play about the earth, and the rejuvenating spirit spring brings to it. The change in seasons from winter to spring is beautiful, and speaks to the continual rebirth of nature. This is a simple play, but a beautiful one.
See my other reviews here!
See my other reviews here!
May 16, 2025
Esta obra de teatro comienza con las preocupaciones de un rey al pensar en la muerte, por lo que comienza a hacerle caso completo a un pundit, que por lo que he buscado es una persona estudiosa de temas relacionados con el Hinduismo. Este pundit comenta a través de un libro como la vida ascética es la única capaz de quitarle importancia a la muerte, lo cual contrasta con la situación de hambruna que sufre el pueblo al comienzo de la obra y que el rey ignora. Después aparece un poeta que da su visión sobre como hay que vivir la vida al máximo pues la muerte no es lo último que hay para nosotros.
Como sus palabras son difíciles de entender para el rey, le realiza una obra de teatro dentro de esta misma obra que leemos enseñándole la continuidad del ciclo vida-muerte-vida mediante el paso del invierno (muerte) a la primavera (vida), viniendo de aquí el título.
Esta obra me ha parecido bastante simbólica y difícil de entender por varios motivos. El primero es la presencia del pundit, pues sugiere que en la obra hay temas hinduistas embebidos en ella, los cuales no he captado ya que desconozco este tema completamente. Como segundo punto el lenguaje simbólico y extraño que utiliza el poeta y que luego aparece en su propia obra de teatro, lleno de menciones hacia flora y fauna de la India que posiblemente en esa región tienen un carácter simbólico que tampoco puedo comprender. También cabe recalcar que la obra está llena de canciones, si existen o si en su idioma original tienen más significado lo desconozco.
Y ya como último punto es que al ser el autor indio no sé si las referencias que he podido captar son del origen que yo creo, europeo, o de origen indio proveniente de autores bien conocidos por allí. El ciclo vida-muerte que se continúan todo el rato me recuerda al eterno retorno de Nietzsche, que el rey no quisiera escuchar al poeta en las primeras escenas porque son peligrosos a la República de Platón. ¿Puede que estas referencias sí estén en la obra o que me las haya imaginado? No lo sé, aunque puede que al tratar un tema tan universal como es el sentimiento hacia la muerte haya varias interpretaciones que surgieron en distintas civilizaciones y que Tagore utilice este hecho para crear su obra.
A pesar de esta complejidad, me ha gustado esta obra de teatro y tengo ganas de leer otras obras suyas. Me gustaría saber si alguien que tenga bastantes más conocimientos del Hinduismo o de India en general podría captar mejor los temas que Tagore quería expresar en esta obra.
Como sus palabras son difíciles de entender para el rey, le realiza una obra de teatro dentro de esta misma obra que leemos enseñándole la continuidad del ciclo vida-muerte-vida mediante el paso del invierno (muerte) a la primavera (vida), viniendo de aquí el título.
Esta obra me ha parecido bastante simbólica y difícil de entender por varios motivos. El primero es la presencia del pundit, pues sugiere que en la obra hay temas hinduistas embebidos en ella, los cuales no he captado ya que desconozco este tema completamente. Como segundo punto el lenguaje simbólico y extraño que utiliza el poeta y que luego aparece en su propia obra de teatro, lleno de menciones hacia flora y fauna de la India que posiblemente en esa región tienen un carácter simbólico que tampoco puedo comprender. También cabe recalcar que la obra está llena de canciones, si existen o si en su idioma original tienen más significado lo desconozco.
Y ya como último punto es que al ser el autor indio no sé si las referencias que he podido captar son del origen que yo creo, europeo, o de origen indio proveniente de autores bien conocidos por allí. El ciclo vida-muerte que se continúan todo el rato me recuerda al eterno retorno de Nietzsche, que el rey no quisiera escuchar al poeta en las primeras escenas porque son peligrosos a la República de Platón. ¿Puede que estas referencias sí estén en la obra o que me las haya imaginado? No lo sé, aunque puede que al tratar un tema tan universal como es el sentimiento hacia la muerte haya varias interpretaciones que surgieron en distintas civilizaciones y que Tagore utilice este hecho para crear su obra.
A pesar de esta complejidad, me ha gustado esta obra de teatro y tengo ganas de leer otras obras suyas. Me gustaría saber si alguien que tenga bastantes más conocimientos del Hinduismo o de India en general podría captar mejor los temas que Tagore quería expresar en esta obra.
February 29, 2020
Obra de teatro+Poesía lírica+Filosofía= Ciclo de la primavera
Esta obra es todo eso. Si tuviera que describirla diría que es un canto a la vida, al amor, a la alegría y, sobre todo a la juventud, la ''juventud eterna''. Tagore en este pequeño libro nos deja un hermoso mensaje moral: la vejez y la muerte nos llega a todos, si. Pero, uno sólo se convierte en un anciano y muere cuando renuncia a la juventud, cuando deja de actuar como un niño y sólo se preocupa por el deber, las obligaciones y las responsabilidades. La juventud no se pierde, se renueva constantemente, a menos que nosotros decidamos abandonarla. Todo ello, está representado en la obra metafóricamente con dos estaciones del año: la primavera verde (representa a la juventud) y el invierno gris (a los ancianos).
No temamos a los cambios propios vejez, debemos abrazarlos, aceptarlos. Si cada uno de nosotros se siente y actúa como un niño lo seguirá siendo; la edad es sólo un número. Y no temamos a la muerte que no es más que otra aventura, pero si a volvernos amargados, a preocuparnos de más por lo mundano y, en resumen, a renunciar a nuestra juventud.
Si la puntuación es tan baja es por dos motivos: 1) me pareció demasiado metafórico y rebuscado, si no se lee con mucho detenimiento no se llega a apreciar del todo su mensaje; 2) la poesía no es lo mío. Eso no quita que la obra sea realmente excelente. Es más, luego de terminar de leerlo uno logra comprender totalmente porque motivo este hombre fue premiado con el Nobel.
Esta obra es todo eso. Si tuviera que describirla diría que es un canto a la vida, al amor, a la alegría y, sobre todo a la juventud, la ''juventud eterna''. Tagore en este pequeño libro nos deja un hermoso mensaje moral: la vejez y la muerte nos llega a todos, si. Pero, uno sólo se convierte en un anciano y muere cuando renuncia a la juventud, cuando deja de actuar como un niño y sólo se preocupa por el deber, las obligaciones y las responsabilidades. La juventud no se pierde, se renueva constantemente, a menos que nosotros decidamos abandonarla. Todo ello, está representado en la obra metafóricamente con dos estaciones del año: la primavera verde (representa a la juventud) y el invierno gris (a los ancianos).
No temamos a los cambios propios vejez, debemos abrazarlos, aceptarlos. Si cada uno de nosotros se siente y actúa como un niño lo seguirá siendo; la edad es sólo un número. Y no temamos a la muerte que no es más que otra aventura, pero si a volvernos amargados, a preocuparnos de más por lo mundano y, en resumen, a renunciar a nuestra juventud.
Si la puntuación es tan baja es por dos motivos: 1) me pareció demasiado metafórico y rebuscado, si no se lee con mucho detenimiento no se llega a apreciar del todo su mensaje; 2) la poesía no es lo mío. Eso no quita que la obra sea realmente excelente. Es más, luego de terminar de leerlo uno logra comprender totalmente porque motivo este hombre fue premiado con el Nobel.
June 26, 2017
Cute, extremely fast read, although the ending kind of makes no sense and I not get the moral of the story.
May 28, 2020
Leer este libro es como escuchar una nana en un remanso de paz y abrazarte con la tierra para saber que somos uno, y así aceptar el devenir de la vida bajo los brazos de la naturaleza.
November 4, 2021
Youth is like Spring time.
April 7, 2022
Necesitaba un poco de amor a la vida después de Sartre. Me ha gustado mucho el papel de la muerte en la obra y cómo debemos entenderla y no temerla.
March 10, 2024
Na verdade, foi uma releitura. Tagore foi um dos autores preferidos da minha juventude. São poemas de uma sensibilidade extraordinária, quase mística. Aconselho a leitura, sempre e para sempre.
February 24, 2017
I seem to find Tagore's books at exactly the right moments in my life. Whenever i'm stumbling down an unknown road, his words are like a guiding light, gently saying, "It's okay, look how everything is in nature.." I was dying within, irritated and frustrated, feeling cold and harsh, and this book, his words brought back that eternal spring, i was amused by the songs that those youthful heralds of springs sing, how they were filled with hope and vigor, playfulness and childishness, and how they chose to ignore the meaningful meanings in Dada's quatrains. Instead they were happy singing their own songs. ~ when the shoulders become heavy with the burdens of the world, send your heralds of Spring to capture the Old Man and let me be childish and youthful again.. ~
"Did you leave behind you your love, my heart, and miss peace through all your days?
And is the path you followed lost and forgotten, making your return hopeless?
I go roaming listening to brooks' babble, to the rustle of leaves.
And it seems to me that I shall find the way, that reaches the land of lost love
beyond the evening stars."
"We are free, my friends, from the fear of work,
For we know that work is play,--the play of life.
It is Play, to fight and toss, between life and death;
It is Play that flashes in the laughter of light in the infinite heart;
It roars in the wind, and surges in the sea."
"Did you leave behind you your love, my heart, and miss peace through all your days?
And is the path you followed lost and forgotten, making your return hopeless?
I go roaming listening to brooks' babble, to the rustle of leaves.
And it seems to me that I shall find the way, that reaches the land of lost love
beyond the evening stars."
"We are free, my friends, from the fear of work,
For we know that work is play,--the play of life.
It is Play, to fight and toss, between life and death;
It is Play that flashes in the laughter of light in the infinite heart;
It roars in the wind, and surges in the sea."
September 14, 2014
A beautiful play written by Rabindranath Tagore, the only Nobel Laureate for English Literature from India.
Though one needs a poetic bent of mind to understand the play when reading, it is understood by me as that the Spring season with all its beauty and vigor goes across the Earth to bring happiness and joy to all the living things. The season always takes over the Earth from the deadly sorrows of vindictive Winter, which always tries to subdue the happiness through its natural trait of withdrawal unlike Spring’s natural trait of always spreading spiritual and physical joy, beauty and happiness. This cycle happens every year when Winter takes over from Spring and Spring from Winter. Ultimately the home coming of April every year is always cherished across the world for it brings the beauty and joy of Spring season.
The play is divided into four Acts which are filled with beautiful songs and poems which relate to the daily life of humanity and also give many insights for the spiritual and physical enlightenment. Some of them can be exemplified as follows. “1- When we run forward at full speed, our eyes keep gazing in front of us, and we see nothing on either side of us ; 2- If things did not move on and vanish, we should see no beauty anywhere. How true !!!
Many such truths of life can be explored in this play if at all the reader takes interest in digging out the meaning of each and every poem recited.
My rating is 3.75 out of 5
Though one needs a poetic bent of mind to understand the play when reading, it is understood by me as that the Spring season with all its beauty and vigor goes across the Earth to bring happiness and joy to all the living things. The season always takes over the Earth from the deadly sorrows of vindictive Winter, which always tries to subdue the happiness through its natural trait of withdrawal unlike Spring’s natural trait of always spreading spiritual and physical joy, beauty and happiness. This cycle happens every year when Winter takes over from Spring and Spring from Winter. Ultimately the home coming of April every year is always cherished across the world for it brings the beauty and joy of Spring season.
The play is divided into four Acts which are filled with beautiful songs and poems which relate to the daily life of humanity and also give many insights for the spiritual and physical enlightenment. Some of them can be exemplified as follows. “1- When we run forward at full speed, our eyes keep gazing in front of us, and we see nothing on either side of us ; 2- If things did not move on and vanish, we should see no beauty anywhere. How true !!!
Many such truths of life can be explored in this play if at all the reader takes interest in digging out the meaning of each and every poem recited.
My rating is 3.75 out of 5
Read
July 13, 2017Pag. 106
O maior
vai de boa mente
com o mais pequeno.
O mediocre
vai sózinho.
Pag. 98 - Cântico da Esperança
Não peça eu nunca
para me ver livre de perigos,
mas coragem para afrontá-los.
Não queira eu
que se apaguem as minhas dores,
mas que saiba dominá-las
no meu coração.
Não procure eu amigos
no campo de batalha da vida,
mas ter forças dentro de mim.
Não deseje eu ansiosamente
ser salvo,
mas ter esperança
para conquistar pacientemente
a minha liberdade.
Não seja eu tão cobarde, Senhor,
que deseje a tua misericórdia
no meu triunfo,
mas apertar a tua mão
no meu fracasso!
O maior
vai de boa mente
com o mais pequeno.
O mediocre
vai sózinho.
Pag. 98 - Cântico da Esperança
Não peça eu nunca
para me ver livre de perigos,
mas coragem para afrontá-los.
Não queira eu
que se apaguem as minhas dores,
mas que saiba dominá-las
no meu coração.
Não procure eu amigos
no campo de batalha da vida,
mas ter forças dentro de mim.
Não deseje eu ansiosamente
ser salvo,
mas ter esperança
para conquistar pacientemente
a minha liberdade.
Não seja eu tão cobarde, Senhor,
que deseje a tua misericórdia
no meu triunfo,
mas apertar a tua mão
no meu fracasso!
April 14, 2013
This is d first time i have come across depiction of laymen humor in Tagore's works . I have always enjoyed Tagore's oeuvre , but for me the principal fascination ,whether it be his songs, drama or prose , stems from the poetry quintessential to all of his works. Reading Tagore is always a rapturous delight for the senses and the soul , and more so to the Indian psyche,for it's veritably a homecoming !
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