Gitanjali: Song 18

Monsoon season—the harbinger of rain. It relieves people from soul-sucking summers. No wonder, the Indian culture, affords a coveted position to rain; summers get a similar preference in the West. Rain, with its rejuvenating quality, ushers in hope and happiness. The arrival of rain clouds is celebrated in Indian music and poetry. Ragas, such as Megh, and Malhar, are dedicated to rains.

Now imagine the first showers touching the scorching earth, petrichor diffusing in the air, plants, and trees swaying joyfully in the wind, and people coming out to feel the raindrops lash on their bodies. All of creation is responding to the first showers. Birds, bees, and beasts are making merry. Away in a lonely corner is a lover for whom the same rain evokes pangs of separation. One of the most prominent emotions conveyed in the rain songs is longing. A lover yearning for his/her beloved is a common trope in both love poetry and devotional songs. In fact, the difference between the two often gets blurred. A lovelorn man/woman is juxtaposed against the celebratory atmosphere of rain.

In Song 18 of Gitanjali, Rabindranath Tagore alludes to this rich tradition of rain music and poetry. The speaker, an archetypal woman lover, drowns in longing as the monsoon clouds rise in the sky. One is reminded of the story of Meghduta by Sanskrit poet Kalidasa where a yaksha (a male celestial being) beseeches a rain cloud to take a message to his beloved. The speaker-lover in the poem is mourning separation too. She can also be seen as the ‘soul bride’ waiting to be let into the chamber of her beloved.

When surrounded by people in the afternoon, she forgets her pain. Humdrum work keeps her occupied. However, on the ‘lonely days’ when the sky is overcast, the pain of separation pierces her. She fears rain as it invariably magnifies her melancholy. The tempestuous wind makes her restless. She gazes at the ‘gloomy sky’ in sadness as well as, perhaps, in hope.

Clouds heap upon clouds and it darkens. Ah, love,

why dost thou let me wait outside at the door all

alone?

In the busy moments of the noontide work I

am with the crowd, but on this dark lonely day it is

only for thee that I hope.

If thou showest me not thy face, if thou leavest

me wholly aside, I know not how I am to pass these

long, rainy hours.

I keep gazing on the far away gloom of the

sky, and my heart wanders wailing with the restless wind.

Here is a bhajan by Saint Mirabai rendered by Tanusri Chatterjee. In the song, Mirabai says that the thundering clouds evoke the thoughts of Krishna, her beloved.