Sing Before the Sun Comes Up, Rabindranath Tagore on Faith, Light and Love

Picture a small bird on the branch outside your window at a quarter to six. The sky is still ink blue. The streetlights are still on. And the bird starts to sing.

It feels the light coming long before you can see it. So it sings first, and the sun follows.

Rabindranath Tagore said faith is exactly that bird. I love that picture for an early November Tuesday, when the dawn arrives a little later each week and the leaves come down gold outside every window.

This is part of Timeless Authors, our daily series on the writers who change ordinary days. Yesterday Florence Scovel Shinn showed us how our words travel out and come home again. Today Rabindranath Tagore teaches us to sing before the sunrise.

Rabindranath Tagore (1861 to 1941)
Bengali poet, songwriter, painter and teacher, author of Gitanjali and the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

The Teaching of Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore taught that faith is a song you sing before the proof arrives. The same bright stream of life runs through you and through the whole world, and it fills you fresh every morning. Love opens every gate, so you can greet each day with joy while the sky is still dark.

Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.

Rabindranath Tagore, Fireflies, 1928, in his own English translation

Feels the light. Tagore says the bird feels the light, and that feeling is enough to start the song. Your hope for this day is that same feeling, and you get to sing it right now, before anything outside has changed.

In Their Own Words, Favorite and Lesser Known Quotes

Tagore wrote in Bengali and made his own English versions of many poems. Every quote below comes from those English editions, Gitanjali (1912), Stray Birds (1916) and Fireflies (1928), all free to read on Wikisource.

Every Morning Is New

His own mornings are new surprises to God.

Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds, 32 (1916), in his own English translation

I sit at my window this morning where the world like a passer-by stops for a moment, nods to me and goes.

Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds, 16 (1916), in his own English translation

If even God is surprised by each morning, we can let ours surprise us too. Give the world a moment at your window today and nod back.

Life Fills You Again and Again

This frail vessel thou emptiest again and again, and fillest it ever with fresh life.

Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali, poem 1 (1912), in his own English translation

Tired evenings are part of the rhythm. Every empty cup gets filled again, and this morning is one of those fillings.

One Stream of Life

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.

Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali, poem 69 (1912), in his own English translation

I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.

Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali, poem 69 (1912), in his own English translation

The life in the falling leaves and the life in your hands are one current. Feel that today, and the ordinary walk to the car becomes a little dance.

Love Opens the Gate

He who wants to do good knocks at the gate; he who loves finds the gate open.

Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds, 83 (1916), in his own English translation

Love is life in its fulness like the cup with its wine.

Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds, 284 (1916), in his own English translation

Effort knocks. Love walks right in. Lead with love today and watch how many gates swing open.

Little Thoughts and Gentle Rest

These little thoughts are the rustle of leaves; they have their whisper of joy in my mind.

Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds, 17 (1916), in his own English translation

Rest belongs to the work as the eyelids to the eyes.

Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds, 24 (1916), in his own English translation

Small thoughts can carry real joy, and rest is part of good work. Let both belong to your day.

Who Was Rabindranath Tagore?

Rabindranath Tagore was born in Calcutta on May 7, 1861, the youngest son of Debendranath Tagore, a leader of the Brahmo Samaj. He wrote poems, songs, plays, stories and essays in Bengali for most of his long life, and he set many of his songs to his own music.

In 1901 he founded an experimental school at Shantiniketan, where he blended the best of Indian and Western traditions. The school later grew into the international Visva-Bharati University.

His English Gitanjali, Song Offerings appeared in 1912 with an introduction by W. B. Yeats, and in 1913 he became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. He was knighted in 1915 and within a few years resigned the honour as a protest against British policies in India.

In his sixties he became recognized as a painter, with exhibitions in Europe. He died in Calcutta on August 7, 1941. For a fuller life, read his Nobel Prize biography and his profile at Poets.org.

What Faith Before Dawn Really Means

Faith before dawn means living from the light you can feel, ahead of the light you can see. Tagore’s bird trusts the morning so fully that the song comes first.

So instead of asking, when will I finally feel ready, try asking, what song can I sing while the sky is still dark?

Henry David Thoreau called it carrying a dawn in you, and Kahlil Gibran wrote of waking with a winged heart. Tagore adds the song.

Why This Teaching Fits Today

This is a Tuesday in early November. At six this morning the sky over much of the country is still dark, and the trees are letting go of their leaves one bright handful at a time.

Let life be beautiful like summer flowers and death like autumn leaves.

Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds, 82 (1916), in his own English translation

Autumn shows us that endings can glow. Tuesday is where the week finds its rhythm, so it is the perfect day to start singing early and let the light catch up.

Your Morning Practice, the Dawn Song

This takes about ten minutes.

1. Rise before the light. Sit by a window while the sky is still dark and take three slow, easy breaths.
2. Name your faith. Write one sentence about a good thing you trust is already on its way to you.
3. Sing it softly. Hum, whisper or sing one line of a song you love, the way Tagore’s bird greets the dawn.
4. Feel the stream. Rest a hand on your heart and feel the same life that moves through the trees outside moving through you.
5. Open one gate. Do one loving thing before noon, a kind message, a handwritten note or a warm word to someone close.

Make it stick with an if then plan. If I see the first gray light in the window, then I will sing my Dawn Song before I open my phone.

Essential Reading

• Gitanjali, Song Offerings (1912). The book that carried Tagore to the world, with the introduction by W. B. Yeats.
• Stray Birds (1916). Tiny poems, one or two lines each, perfect with morning coffee.
• Fireflies (1928). Short sparks of wisdom, home of the bird that sings before dawn.
• Sadhana, The Realisation of Life (1913). Tagore’s lectures on joy, love and the soul’s kinship with the world.

Quick Answers About Rabindranath Tagore

Who was Rabindranath Tagore?

Rabindranath Tagore (1861 to 1941) was a Bengali poet, songwriter, painter and educator from Calcutta. In 1913 he became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

What is Rabindranath Tagore’s most famous quote?

Many readers treasure “Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark” from Fireflies (1928). Others love “Let life be beautiful like summer flowers and death like autumn leaves” from Stray Birds (1916).

What is Gitanjali about?

Gitanjali, Song Offerings is a collection of devotional poems about joy, love and the life that flows through all things. Tagore’s own English version appeared in 1912 with an introduction by W. B. Yeats.

Can I read Rabindranath Tagore for free?

Yes. Gitanjali, Stray Birds, Fireflies and Sadhana are all in the public domain and free to read on Wikisource and Project Gutenberg.

What did Tagore believe about joy?

Tagore saw joy as the feeling of belonging to one great stream of life. In Gitanjali he describes the same life running through his veins and through the whole world, dancing in rhythmic measures.

Back to the Bird at the Window

Somewhere outside your window this morning a bird is already singing into the dark. Let it be your teacher today.

Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.

Rabindranath Tagore, Fireflies, 1928, in his own English translation

What song will you sing before your light arrives?

Start early. Start singing. Start today.

Complement this with Florence Scovel Shinn on Words, Faith and Love, Emerson’s Case for the Life Only You Can Live and W. B. Yeats on Peace and Dreams, the poet who introduced Gitanjali to English readers.

Want a calm, intentional start every day? Hold Until Sunrise is our little app for mornings that matter.

For a little goodness in your inbox every Sunday, join us here.

With love, Paolo

Sources

• Rabindranath Tagore, Fireflies (1928), Wikisource
• Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds (1916), Wikisource
• Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali, poem 1 (1912), Wikisource
• Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali, poem 69 (1912), Wikisource
• Rabindranath Tagore, Biographical, NobelPrize.org
• Rabindranath Tagore, Facts, NobelPrize.org
• Rabindranath Tagore, Poets.org