Only Thee by Rabindranath Tagore
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 […]
On the Seashore by Rabindranath Tagore
The infinite sky is motionless overhead and the restless water is boisterous. On the seashore of endless worlds the children meet with shouts and dances. They build their houses with sand, and they play with empty shells. With withered leaves they weave their boats and smilingly float them on the vast deep. Children have their […]
Old And New by Rabindranath Tagore
Thou hast given me seats in homes not my own. Thou hast brought the distant near and made a brother of the stranger. I am uneasy at heart when I have to leave my accustomed shelter; I forget that there abides the old in the new, and that there also thou abidest. Through birth and […]
Ocean of Forms by Rabindranath Tagore
hoping to gain the perfect pearl of the formless. No more sailing from harbor to harbor with this my weather-beaten boat. The days are long passed when my sport was to be tossed on waves. And now I am eager to die into the deathless. Into the audience hall by the fathomless abyss where swells […]
O Fool by Rabindranath Tagore
O beggar, to come beg at thy own door! Leave all thy burdens on his hands who can bear all, and never look behind in regret. Thy desire at once puts out the light from the lamp it touches with its breath. It is unholy—take not thy gifts through its unclean hands. Accept only what […]
My Song by Rabindranath Tagore
the fond arms of love. This song of mine will touch your forehead like a kiss of blessing. When you are alone it will sit by your side and whisper in your ear, when you are in the crowd it will fence you about with aloofness. My song will be like a pair of wings […]
My Friend by Rabindranath Tagore
on thy journey of love, my friend? The sky groans like one in despair. I have no sleep tonight. Ever and again I open my door and look out on the darkness, my friend! I can see nothing before me. I wonder where lies thy path! By what dim shore of the ink-black river, by […]
Moment’s Indulgence by Rabindranath Tagore
that I have in hand I will finish afterwards. Away from the sight of thy face my heart knows no rest nor respite, and my work becomes an endless toil in a shoreless sea of toil. Today the summer has come at my window with its sighs and murmurs; and the bees are plying their […]
Maya by Rabindranath Tagore
thus casting colored shadows on thy radiance —such is thy Maya. Thou settest a barrier in thine own being and then callest thy severed self in myriad notes. This thy self-separation has taken body in me. The poignant song is echoed through all the sky in many-coloued tears and smiles, alarms and hopes; waves rise […]
Lover’s Gifts XXXIX: There Is a Looker-On by Rabindranath Tagore
things in ages and worlds beyond memory’s shore, and those forgotten sights glisten on the grass and shiver on the leaves. He has seen under new veils the face of the one beloved, in twilight hours of many a nameless star. Therefore his sky seems to ache with the pain of countless meetings and partings, […]
Lover’s Gifts XXVIII: I Dreamt by Rabindranath Tagore
her fingers, playing the melody of her touch. I looked at her face and struggled with my tears, till the agony of unspoken words burst my sleep like a bubble. I sat up and saw the glow of the Milky Way above my window, like a world of silence on fire, and I wondered if […]
Lover’s Gifts XXII: I Shall Gladly Suffer by Rabindranath Tagore
if only in some happy future I am born a herd-boy in the Brinda forest. The herd-boy who grazes his cattle sitting under the banyan tree, and idly weaves gunja flowers into garlands, who loves to splash and plunge in the Jamuna’s cool deep stream. He calls his companions to wake up when morning dawns, […]
Lover’s Gifts XVIII: Your Days by Rabindranath Tagore
My house by the cross-roads has its doors open and my mind is absent, -for I sing. I shall never be made to answer for it, if you must give me your heart. If I pledge my word to you in tunes now, and am too much in earnest to keep it when music is […]
Lover’s Gifts XVI: She Dwelt Here by the Pool by Rabindranath Tagore
an evening she had watched the moon made dizzy by the shaking of bamboo leaves, and on many a rainy day the smell of the wet earth had come to her over the young shoots of rice. Her pet name is known here among those date-palm groves and in the courtyards where girls sit and […]
Lover’s Gifts XLVIII: I Travelled the Old Road by Rabindranath Tagore
my cattle to the meadows, I ferried my boat across the stream and all the ways were well known to me. One morning my basket was heavy with wares. Men were busy in the fields, the pastures crowded with cattle; the breast of earth heaved with the mirth of ripening rice. Suddenly there was a […]
Lover’s Gifts XLVII: The Road Is by Rabindranath Tagore
day, she sings to my dreams all night. My meeting with her had no beginning, it begins endlessly at each daybreak, renewing its summer in fresh flowers and songs, and her every new kiss is the first kiss to me. The road and I are lovers. I change my dress for her night after night, […]
Lover’s Gifts XLIV: Where Is Heaven by Rabindranath Tagore
beyond the limits of birth and death, unswayed by the rhythm of day and night; it is not of the earth. But your poet knows that its eternal hunger is for time and space, and it strives evermore to be born in the fruitful dust. Heaven is fulfilled in your sweet body, my child, in […]
Lover’s Gifts XLIII: Dying, You Have Left Behind by Rabindranath Tagore
in my life. You have painted my thought’s horizon with the sunset colours of your departure, leaving a track of tears across the earth to love’s heaven. Clasped in your dear arms, life and death united in me in a marriage bond. I think I can see you watching there in the balcony with your […]
Lover’s Gifts XLII: Are You a Mere Picture by Rabindranath Tagore
this dust? They throb with the pulse of things, but you are immensely aloof in your stillness, painted form. The day was when you walked with me, your breath warm, your limbs singing of life. My world found its speech in your voice, and touched my heart with your face. You suddenly stopped in your […]
Lover’s Gifts XL: A Message Came by Rabindranath Tagore
you among the quivering of unborn May, where smiles ripen for tears and hours ache with songs unsung.” It says, “Come to me across the worn-out track of age, through the gates of death. For dreams fade, hopes fail, the fathered fruits of the year decay, but I am the eternal truth, and you shall […]
Lover’s Gifts XIX: It Is Written in the Book by Rabindranath Tagore
noisy world, to go to the forest seclusion. But the poet proclaims that the forest hermitage is only for the young. For it is the birthplace of flowers and the haunt of birds and bees; and hidden hooks are waiting there for the thrill of lovers’ whispers. There the moon-light, that is all one kiss […]
Lover’s Gifts XIII: Last Night in the Garden by Rabindranath Tagore
lifted the cup to your lips, you shut your eyes and smiled while I raised your veil, unbound your tresses, drawing down upon my breast your face sweet with its silence, last night when the moon’s dream overflowed the world of slumber. To-day in the dew-cooled calm of the dawn you are walking to God’s […]
Lover’s Gifts VIII: There Is Room for You by Rabindranath Tagore
My boat is crowded, it is heavily laden, but how can I turn you away? Your young body is slim and swaying; there is a twinkling smile in the edge of your eyes, and your robe is coloured like the rain cloud. The travellers will land for different roads and homes. You will sit for […]
Lover’s Gifts V: I Would Ask For Still More by Rabindranath Tagore
and the world with its endless riches; but I would be content with the smallest corner of this earth if only she were mine. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — the ultimate repository of world poetry. Poetry Monster — the […]
Lover’s Gifts LXX: Take Back Your Coins by Rabindranath Tagore
sent to the forest shrine to decoy the young ascetic who had never seen a women. I failed in your bidding. Dimly day was breaking when the hermit boy came to bathe in the stream, his tawny locks crowded on his shoulders, like a cluster of morning clouds, and his limbs shining like a streak […]
Lover’s Gifts LVIII: Things Throng and Laugh by Rabindranath Tagore
and whirl like children. Man’s mind is aroused by their shouts; his thoughts long to be the playmates of things. Our dreams, drifting in the stream of the vague, stretch their arms to clutch the earth, -their efforts stiffen into bricks and stones, and thus the city of man is built. Voices come swarming from […]
Lover’s Gifts LIV: In the Beginning of Time by Rabindranath Tagore
dream two women. One is the dancer at the court of paradise, the desired of men, she who laughs and plucks the minds of the wise from their cold meditations and of fools from their emptiness; and scatters them like seeds with careless hands in the extravagant winds of March, in the flowering frenzy of […]
Lover’s Gifts LII: Tired of Waiting by Rabindranath Tagore
the winter had gone. Glimpses of the unseen comer reached your wayside watch, and you rushed out running and panting, impulsive jasmines, troops of riotous roses. You were the first to march to the breach of death, your clamour of colour and perfume troubled the air. You laughed and pressed and pushed each other, bared […]
Lover’s Gifts IV: She Is Near to My Heart by Rabindranath Tagore
sweet to me as sleep is to tired limbs. My love for her is my life flowing in its fullness, like a river in autumn flood, running with serene abandonment. My songs are one with my love, like the murmur of a stream, that sings with all its waves and current. ————— The End And […]
Lover’s Gifts II: Come to My Garden Walk by Rabindranath Tagore
press themselves on your sight. Pass them by, stopping at some chance joy, which like a sudden wonder of sunset illumines, yet elude. For lover’s gift is shy, it never tells its name, it flits across the shade, spreading a shiver of joy along the dust. Overtake it or miss it for ever. But a […]
Lotus by Rabindranath Tagore
and I knew it not. My basket was empty and the flower remained unheeded. Only now and again a sadness fell upon me, and I started up from my dream and felt a sweet trace of a strange fragrance in the south wind. That vague sweetness made my heart ache with longing and it seemed […]
Lost Time by Rabindranath Tagore
But it is never lost, my lord. Thou hast taken every moment of my life in thine own hands. Hidden in the heart of things thou art nourishing seeds into sprouts, buds into blossoms, and ripening flowers into fruitfulness. I was tired and sleeping on my idle bed and imagined all work had ceased. In […]
Lost Star by Rabindranath Tagore
splendor, the gods held their assembly in the sky and sang `Oh, the picture of perfection! the joy unalloyed!’ But one cried of a sudden —`It seems that somewhere there is a break in the chain of light and one of the stars has been lost.’ The golden string of their harp snapped, their song […]
Little Of Me by Rabindranath Tagore
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 Flute by Rabindranath Tagore
vessel thou emptiest again and again, and fillest it ever with fresh life. This little flute of a reed thou hast carried over hills and dales, and hast breathed through it melodies eternally new. At the immortal touch of thy hands my little heart loses its limits in joy and gives birth to utterance ineffable. […]
Light by Rabindranath Tagore
the eye-kissing light, heart-sweetening light! Ah, the light dances, my darling, at the center of my life; the light strikes, my darling, the chords of my love; the sky opens, the wind runs wild, laughter passes over the earth. The butterflies spread their sails on the sea of light. Lilies and jasmines surge up on […]
Let Me Not Forget by Rabindranath Tagore
then let me ever feel that I have missed thy sight —let me not forget for a moment, let me carry the pangs of this sorrow in my dreams and in my wakeful hours. As my days pass in the crowded market of this world and my hands grow full with the daily profits, let […]
Leave This by Rabindranath Tagore
Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut? Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee! He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and where the pathmaker is breaking stones. He is with them in sun and in shower, and […]
Last Curtain by Rabindranath Tagore
when my sight of this earth shall be lost, and life will take its leave in silence, drawing the last curtain over my eyes. Yet stars will watch at night, and morning rise as before, and hours heave like sea waves casting up pleasures and pains. When I think of this end of my moments, […]
Journey Home by Rabindranath Tagore
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 […]