Waiting in the dark

WHEN I GIVE up the helm I know that the time has come for thee to take it. What there is to do will be instantly done. Vain is this struggle.

Then take away your hands and silently put up with your defeat, my heart, and think it your good fortune to sit perfectly still where you are placed.

These my lamps are blown out at every little puff of wind, and trying to light them I forget all else again and again.

But I shall be wise this time and wait in the dark, spreading my mat on the floor; and whenever it is thy pleasure, my lord, come silently and take thy seat here.

 

Rabindranath 

Mother, it is no gain

THE CHILD WHO is decked with prince's robes and who has jewelled chains round his neck loses all pleasure in his play; his dress hampers him at every step. 

In fear that it may be frayed, or stained with dust he keeps himself from the world, and is afraid even to move. 

Mother, it is no gain, thy bondage of finery, if it keep one shut off from the healthful dust of the earth, if it rob one of the right of entrance to the great fair of common human life.



Rabindranath Tagore 

the poorest, the lowliest, and the lost.

Here is thy footstool and there rest thy feet

 where live the poorest, and lowliest, and lost.

When I try to bow to thee, 

my obeisance cannot reacb down to the depth

 where thy feet rest among the poorest, and lowliest, and lost.

Pride can never approach to where thou walkest 

in the clothes of the humble among 

the poorest, and lowliest, and lost.

My heart can never find its way to where thou keepest

 company with the companionless among

 the poorest, the lowliest, and the lost.

Rabindranath

Let only that little be left of me whereby I may name thee my all.

Let only that little be left of my will whereby I may feel thee on every side, and come to thee in everything, and offer to thee my love every moment.

Let only that little be left of me whereby I may never hide thee.

Let only that little of my fetters be left whereby I am bound with thy will, and thy purpose is carried out in my life-and that is the fetter of thy love.

Rabindranath

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.

Rabindranath

The time that my journey takes

The time that my journey takes is long

 and the way of it long.

I came out on the chariot of the first gleam of light,

 and pursued my voyage through the wildernesses of worlds leaving my track on many a star and planet.

It is the most distant course that comes nearest to thyself, and that training is the most intricate which leads to the utter simplicity of a tune.

The traveller has to knock at every alien door to come to his own, and one has to wander through all the outer worlds to reach the innermost shrine at the end.

My eyes strayed far and wide before I shut them and said 'Here art thou!'

The question and the cry 'Oh, where?' Melt into tears of a thousand streams and deluge the world with the blood of the assurance 'I am!'

Rabindranath

This jewelled chain on my neck.

It decks me only to mock me, this
jewelled chain of mine.
It bruises me when on my neck, it
strangles me when I struggle to tear
it off.
It grips my throat, it chokes my
singing.
Could I but offer it to your hand,
my Lord, I would be saved.
Take it from me, and in exchange
bind me to you with a garland, for I
am ashamed to stand before you with
this jewelled chain on my neck.


Rabindranath

this life is not altogether lost.

I KNOW THAT this life, missing its ripeness in love,
is not altogether lost.
I know that the flowers that fade in the dawn,
the streams that strayed in the desert,
are not altogether lost.
I know that whatever lags behind in this life
laden with slowness is not altogether lost.
I know that my dreams that are still unfulfilled,
and my melodies still unstruck,
are clinging to some lute-strings of thine,
and they are not altogether lost.

Rabindranath

When the market is over

When the market is over
and they return homewards through the dusk,
I sit at the wayside to watch thee plying thy boat,
Crossing the dark water with the sunset gleam upon thy sail;
I see thy silent figure standing at the helm
and suddenly catch thy eyes gazing upon me;
I leave my song; and cry to thee to take me across.

Rabindranath

The scouts of a distant storm

The scouts of a distant storm
have pitched their cloud-tents in the sky
the light has paled;
the air is damp with tears in the voiceless shadow of the forest.
The peace of sadness is in my heart
like the brooding silence upon the master's lute
 before the music begins.
My world is still
with the expectation of the great pain of thy coming into my life.


Rabindranath

THE LANTERN which I carry

THE LANTERN which I carry in my hand
makes enemy of the darkness of the farther road.
And this wayside becomes a terror to me,
where even the flowering tree frowns
like a spectre of scowling menace;
and the sound of my own steps
comes back to me in the echo of muffled suspicion.
Therefore I pray for thy own morning light,
when the far and the near will kiss each other and
death and life will be one in love.

Rabindranath

My debts are large, my failures great

Obstinate are the trammels, but my heart aches when I try to break them.


Freedom is all I want, but to hope for it I feel ashamed.



I am certain that priceless wealth is in thee, and that thou art my best friend, but I have not the heart to sweep away the tinsel that fills my room .


The shroud that covers me is a shroud of dust and death; I hate it, yet hug it in love.

 My debts are large, my failures great, my shame secret and heavy; yet when I come to ask for my good, I quake in fear lest my prayer be granted.

Rabindranath

I was ignorant

They knew the way and went to seek
you along the narrow lane, but I
wandered abroad into the night for I
was ignorant.

I was not schooled enough to be
afraid of you in the dark, therefore
I came upon your doorstep unaware.

The wise rebuked me and bade me
be gone, for I had not come by the
lane.

I turned away in doubt, but you
held me fast, and their scolding be-
came louder every day.

Rabindranath

Your speech is simple

Your speech is simple, my Master
but not theirs who talk of you.

I understand the voice of your stars
and the silence of your trees.

I know that my heart would open
like a flower; that my life has filled
itself at a hidden fountain.

Your songs, like birds from the
lonely land of snow, are winging to
build their nests in my heart against
the warmth of its April, and I am
content to wait for the merry season.

Rabindranath

My portion of the best

My portion of the best in this world
will come from your hands: such was
your promise.

Therefore your light glistens in my
tears.

I fear to be led by others lest I miss
you waiting in some road corner to
be my guide.

I walk my own wilful way till my
very folly tempts you to my door.

For I have your promise that my
portion of the best in this world will
come from your hands.

Rabindranath

Pathways to wisdom

Where roads are made I lose my
way.

In the wide water, in the blue sky
there is no line of a track.

The pathway is hidden by the birds'
wings, by the star-fires, by the flowers
of the wayfaring seasons.

And I ask my heart if its blood
carries the wisdom of the unseen way.

Rabindranath

WE are like a stray line of a poem, which ever feels that it rhymes with another line and must find it, or miss its own fulfilment. This quest of the unattained is the great impulse in man which brings forth all his best creations. Man seems deeply to be aware of a separation at the root of his being, he cries to be led across it to a union; and somehow he knows that it is love which can lead him to a love which is final.

Rabindranath

A Dream

LAST night I dreamt that I was the same boy that I had been before my mother died. She sat in a room in a garden house on the bank of the Ganges. I carelessly passed by without paying attention to her, when all of a sudden it flashed through my mind with an unutterable longing that my mother was there. At once I stopped and went back to her and bowing low touched her feet with my head. She held my hand, looked into my face, and said: "You have come!"

In this great world we carelessly pass by the room where Mother sits. Her storeroom is open when we want our food, our bed is ready when we must sleep. Only that touch and that voice are wanting. We are moving about, but never coming close to the personal presence, to be held by the hand and greeted: "You have come!"

Rabindranath

Keep Me Fully Glad

Keep me fully glad with nothing.
Only take my hand in your hand.
In the gloom of the deepening night take up my heart
And play with it as you wish.
Bind me close to you with nothing.
I will spread myself out at your feet and lie still.
Under this clouded sky I will meet silence with silence.
I will become one with the night clasping the earth in my breast.
Make my life glad with nothing.
The rains sweep the sky from end to end.
Jasmines in the wet untamable wind revel in their own perfume.
The cloud-hidden stars thrill in secret.
Let me fill to the full my heart with nothing but my own depth of joy.
~ A poem by Rabindranath Tagore

Only Thee

That I want thee, only thee---let my heart repeat without end.
All desires that distract me, day and night,
are false and empty to the core.
As the night keeps hidden in its gloom the petition for light,
even thus in the depth of my unconsciousness rings the cry
---`I want thee, only thee'.
As the storm still seeks its end in peace
when it strikes against peace with all its might,
even thus my rebellion strikes against thy love
and still its cry is
---`I want thee, only thee'

Rabindranath