I Cannot Remember My Mother
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I Cannot Remember My Mother is a poem by Rabindranath Tagore in which the poet, as a child, is remembering his mother.
[edit] The Poem
I cannot remember my mother
only sometimes in the midst of my play
a tune seems to hover over my playthings
the tune of some song that she used to
hum while rocking my cradle.
I cannot remember my mother
but when in the early autumn mornings
the smell of shiuli flowers floats in the air
the scent of the morning service in the temple
comes to me as the scent of my mother.
I cannot remember my mother
only when from my bedroom window I send
my eyes into the blue of the distant sky
I feel the stillness of my mother's gaze on my face
has spread all over the sky.
[edit] Summary
This poem shows that though the poet does not have any visible memory of his mother, the memories in the form of smell and sound come back to him vividly. He most probably had lost his mother at a young age.
When he is playing with his toys, he is able to grasp a memory of some tune that his mother used to sing him to sleep, a memory soft, yet powerful. When the smell of the shiuli flowers floats through the air, he is reminded of the freshness of his mother and when he lets his eyes wander into the distant blue, he is able to feel the aura of his mother, ever watchful, gazing at him.
All these memories show that the poet shared a strong memory with his mother, even if short.
[edit] The poet and his style of writing
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), Nobel Laureate in Literature in 1913 was one of modern India's greatest poets and the composer of India's national anthem. Tagore wrote primarily in Bengali, but translated many works into English himself. Tagore's writing is highly imagistic, deeply religious and imbued with his love of nature and his homeland. Tagore's works are renowned for their lyrical beauty and spiritual poignancy. For most of his poems, Tagore composed a melody so that they are actually song-texts. This musical aspect of the poems is at times lost in translation.
