Tagore by Teresa Sebastián | Spanish Poetry In Concert Dedicated To Rabindranath Tagore Performed to Music | English Translation

It is with great pleasure that we bring you this feature on Teresa Sebastián and her Poem and Poetry-In-Concert performance video dedicated to Tagore. Like countless many of us, Gurudeb Rabindranath Tagore provided calm and solace and direction in Teresa's younger darker days, and Teresa writes to us that Tagore probably saved her life, like he did of so many of us. Teresa wrote a poem with respect and gratitude to the great poet and humanist, Tagore. Teresa also writes in her letter to us that Tagore's writings about the fraternity between nations are now more necessary than never in the past, as we have, nowadays, a complete power of destruction, in this stupid, hyper-technological, egoist system, that is stealing all vitality from people and Nature. Teresa - well said, we cannot agree with you more!

Teresa Sebastián was born in Bilbao, Spain. She has been writing since she was a girl, and a winner of the "Premio Poesía de Primavera de la AAVV" award. Teresa has published "La Noche Incandescente" (Ed, Libertarias), and "Frágil" (Ed. Huerga & Fierro, Ed. ). She has performed in Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid and other important cultural centers.

Teresa lives in Madrid and is actively prepearing her new project "Poetry in Concert", a poetry festival in July in her city in "Veranos de la Villa", for the city council. She will give a recital concert in July 16 in Madrid with her band. Actually, Teresa is more interested in  recitals with music and images, than in publishing her work in books. Her present work, "Incandescente", is with J. Carlos Blancas (soundscape), one of the best electrónic musicians in Spain, and Javier Paxariño, a great jazz and new-age music composer, who played in the Fernando Miralles film, "El Jardinero Fiel",  with Alberto Iglesias music, candidate for Hollywood Oscar.

In the following video "Poesi­a en Concierto - Tagore" (Tagore Poem In Concert), Teresa Sebastian reads her own poem "Tagore" live with musicians J.C. Blancas on electronics/keyboards, X.Paixarino on the flute and Niraj Kumar on the Tabla.

A series of Spanish poetry recitations accompanied with musical performances will be held during the new edition of the unique Poetry in Concert program to be held from 27th to 30th July, 2010.

2010 marks the premiere of  "new house" in the Spanish Theater - which is an exciting happening for Poetry in Concert enthusiasts everywhere.

Teresa Sebastian, who has famously composed and performed her wonderful "Poesi­a en Concierto - Tagore" (Tagore Poem In Concert), will perform in, and is also the Artistic Coordinator of, the event.

Washington Bangla Radio is glad to present the entire original poem and an English translation of Teresa Sebastian's poem "Tagore" as well as a live recording of Teresa reading her own poem "Tagore" with musicians J.C. Blancas on electronics/keyboards, X.Paixarino on the flute and Niraj Kumar on the Tabla.

Creative Commons license: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Spain

TAGORE by TERESA SEBASTIAN: Poem in Spanish & English Translation

Washington Bangla Radio thanks Teresa for sending us the English translation of her poem "TAGORE" which you will find below the Spanish original:

En el patio hay una luz de menta
verdes son las hojas y los insectos
y el tiempo fumado y el té.

Música de hilos
ajorcas de la India sonando
tu alegría triste, Tagore.

Música de hilos
y las persianas azules tamizan los cuartos
la piedra húmeda  junto al rio
bañada en luz nocturna.

Barcas con fruta y cadáveres
las máquinas de la ciudad
y el recuerdo de las guerras de Asia
y de la paz de Asia
y los administradores británicos
y los elefantes morados en el polvo
y las ofrendas a un dios azul
y los patos salvajes en el diámetro del cielo
y el hijo pródigo que regresa cubierto de resina.

El sonido del bronce en los templos
y el martilleo de los herreros
y los periódicos ingleses
en los kioscos donde se bebe
y el tiempo que silba más allá.

La espigadora de aromas en cuclillas
los niños en los pupitres de de Santiniketán
y “el festival  de la siembra de árboles”
tras la gran deforestación.

Y cuando murmurabas en sánscrito
desesperado al contraluz de la ventana
por la pérdida del amado
semejante a la pérdida del país interior
soledad absoluta del cero
nautilo que contiene en su centro
un alfiler enquistado.

Con fieltro de sus guantes el poeta
absorbe ese manantial de pena
y la tarde celeste deja su ungüento.

Rabindranath,  mi India interior.

!Música en  tus  hijos de Londres!
y en tu historia como el sari de mil sangres
dejado caer en la escalera de piedra
que el río lava ferruginoso
y tu árbol  en el que tengo raíz
hojas, y oro mudo.
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TAGORE (ENGLISH TRANSLATION)

A mint light in the courtyard

green insects and leaves

and smoked time and  tea.



String music

bangles from India

in your sad joy, Tagore.

!String music!

And the blue blinds sift through the rooms



the humid stone by the river

bathed in night light.



Boats with fruit and corpses

the machines in  the city

memories of the wars in Asia

and  Asia stillness



and the British administrators

and  purple elephants  covered in dust

and the offerings to a blue God

and wild ducks in the sky diameter

and the prodigal son who returns resin covered.



The sound of  bronze bells in the temples

and blacksmith ´s hammering

and  the English newspapers

in  kiosks where people drink

and the time that whistles beyond.



The gleaner of aromas in squatting

The children in the desks of Santiniketán



And the “Sowing trees festival”

after the great deforestation.



And when you were murmuring in Sanskrit

desperate against the window light

because the loss of the loved one

similar to the loss of the inner country

absolute loneliness like emptiness

nautilus with an entrenched pin in its core



With felt of his gloves the poet

absorbs this spring of sorrow

the  pale blue evening leaves its unguent.



Rabindranath,  India inside me



!Music in your London children!

And in your history

like the thousand  bloods  sari

falling down in the stone stairs

that the ferrous river washes



and your tree where I have root(s)

leaves, silent gold.