Gitanjali: Song 27

Light, oh where is the light? Kindle it with the burning fire of desire!

There is the lamp but never a flicker of a flame, — is such thy fate, my heart! Ah, death were better by far for thee!

Misery knocks at thy door, and her message is that thy lord is wakeful, and he calls thee to thy love-tryst through the darkness of night.

The sky is overcast with clouds and the rain is ceaseless. I know not what this is that stirs in me, — I know not its meaning.

A moment’s flash of lightning drags down a deeper gloom on my sight, and my heart gropes for the path to where the music of the night calls me.

Light, oh where is the light! Kindle it with the burning fire of desire! It thunders and the wind rushes screaming through the void. The night is black as a black stone. Let not the hours pass by in the dark. Kindle the lamp of love with thy life.

Song 27 is a plea for light, a metaphor for faith and divine grace. It also highlights the internal struggle of a person before he/she can overcome self-doubt and consider himself/herself worthy of grace.

Darkness is closing in around the speaker; he is groping for a light source, as evident in the opening lines. There is much fire in desire; the speaker intends to use his passion to dispel darkness.

The situation is dire. The lamp he carries has a flickering flame. With no way out, death seems a better option than such darkness. But there may be a silver lining. When misery knocks at the door, she also reveals a sliver of hope. In the difficult moments of life, the speaker is closer to the divine, who is waiting and calling out to him in the pitch dark. Pain makes us vulnerable. Pain strengthens our ties with the divine. Rabindranath is alluding to the same connection in his poetry.

Like in other poems of Gitanjali, the backdrop of a foreboding monsoon night—overcast sky and incessant rains— serves as the perfect meeting time with God-beloved. The speaker fails to ascribe a word and meaning to the churn he feels within. Probably, his heart is clamoring to meet the divine, or is he afraid or hesitant?

A sudden flash of lightning makes him sadder still. He is drawn into the direction from where the music is flowing.

The poem gives a sense that the speaker realises the urgency of the moment; he has been pining for it for a long time. There is a suggestion of the divine being near and calling out to him. However, the complete darkness in and around him makes it impossible to track the correct way. Intermittently, he calls out for light. Then almost rhetorically feels that the fire of his desires can lighten up his life. The tempestuous weather, with lashing rains and thunder, tests his determination. They could be a reference to difficulties impeding the speaker’s path. The speaker realises that he would have to hold on to faith with resolve, even though the blanket of the night is impenetrable. This could also be a suggestion for action irrespective of circumstance. The poet-speaker is resolved to go for the meeting unafraid; love (universal love and self-acceptance) will give him the light he seeks.

Here’s my recitation of the poem.

Many songs and poems celebrate the victory of human will over extreme circumstances. Prayers and hymns allude to a meeting with the divine, which requires a lot of preparation — courage and soul search — on the part of a devotee. Only after quietening the inner noise can one hear the strains of divine music.

Here is a semi-classical song (composed in Raga Ahira Bhairava) from an old Hindi movie. The singer sings of a difficult dark night with no hope in sight.