A simple tune // A tune to which I will arise

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)
Uploaded to YouTube by user mattharding2718 on June 20, 2008.

"14 months in the making, 42 countries, and a cast of thousands. Thanks to everyone who danced with me."

What are the lyrics to the song, "Praan," in your 2008 video?


That's a difficult question to answer. The lyrics to "Praan" were taken from a poem by a Nobel Prize winning Indian author named Rabindranath Tagore. While the poem was written in Bengali (or Bangla), I chose it based on its English translation, which I later learned to be more of an interpretation that captures the spirit of the original without matching it word-for-word.


The English version of the poem is called "Stream of Life." Here it is:

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


It is the same life
that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.


It is the same life
that is rocked in the ocean-cradle
of birth and of death,
in ebb and in flow.


I feel my limbs are made glorious
by the touch of this world of life.
And my pride is from the life-throb of ages
dancing in my blood this moment.

To fit the song, we had to chop things up a bit; turning one verse into a repeating chorus and omitting other sections. Here are the lyrics as they ended up in the song, translated in a more direct way from the original Bengali:


What's the message of your videos?


Up to you. I'm just dancing.

I will not easily forget
The life that stirs in my soul
Hidden amidst Death
That infinite Life


I hear you in the thunder
A simple tune
A tune to which I will arise


And in that storm of happiness
As your music plays in your mind
The whole wide world
Dances to your rhythm


I hear you in the thunder
A simple tune
A tune to which I will arise

Posted to YouTube by mattharding2718 on March 12, 2007: "Here's some stuff that didn't make it into the last video."

Brought to you in the everlovin' tradition of "Why not?"

and the sneak of a suspicion that Matt may save the world.

But only if we dance along!