olo soi, olo soi

Just happened to stumble upon this beautiful rabindrasangeet in youtube. You can hear the song at at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmpRFFg2rOo&feature=related. I wanted to read the lyrics but did not find it online. So, I wrote the lyrics down as I played it over and over again. It is about a lonely girl who is singing about other girls who seem to have a lot to talk about and a lot of friends to talk with. She has neither anything to talk about nor anyone to talk to.

The song is in bengali and work of one of the greatest poets of all times. My attempt to translate the song is miserably poor. I have neither the command over language nor the depth of thoughts and feelings to be able to do any justice to the original work.

olo soi, olo soi,

aamar iccha kore toder moton,

moner kotha koi

I want to pour my heart out like you all.

choriye diye pa dukhani

kone boshe kana kani

kabhu heshe kabhu kende

cheye boshe roi

I want to sit down in a corner with my friends and spend long hours talking to them. I want to laugh and cry with them.

olo soi, olo soi,

aamar iccha kore toder moton,

moner kotha koi

olo soi, olo soi,

toder aache moner kotha

aamar aache koi

aami ki bolibo kar kotha

kon sukh kon byatha

aamar nai kotha

tabu sadh, shoto kotha koi

You all seem to have so much to talk about. I dont seem to have any. There is no happiness to share. There are no pains to talk about. Still, my heart yearns to talk hours on end.

olo soi, olo soi,

olo soi, olo soi,

toder eto ki bolibar aache

bhebe obak hoi

I cant figure out what all you talk about.

aami eka boshi

sondhya hole

aapni bhashi noyon jole

karon keho shudhaile

nirob hoye roi

I sit alone in the evenings and cry by myself. If anyone asks the reason, there is nothing to tell.

olo soi, olo soi,

aamar iccha kore toder moton,

moner kotha koi

If you can find it in your heart to pardon my grotesque translation, perhaps you would read on. Like most of the works by Rabindranath Tagore there is much more to it than just the literal meaning. There are those times when each one of us sit down alone, melancholy and pensive, not knowing where the life is drifting to and not knowing what to share and with whom. There just seems to be so much of pent up emotions that do not find words, that seems to take up its own identity in the deep recesses of your personality, biding its time alone when everything else hurries one to some end or the other. This song captures that small lonely girl in our selves.