The Last Bargain by Rabindranath Tagore
Sword in hand, the King came in his chariot. He held my hand and said, “I will hire you with my power.” But his power counted for nought, and he went away in his chariot. In the heat of the midday the houses stood with shut doors. I wandered along the crooked lane. An old […]
The Kiss by Rabindranath Tagore
Two drinking each other’s heart, it seems. Two roving loves who have left home, pilgrims to the confluence of lips. Two waves rise by the law of love to break and die on two sets of lips. Two wild desires craving each other meet at last at the body’s limits. Love’s writing a song in […]
The Kiss — English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore
Seem to whisper into each other’s ears They seem to suck each other’s heart Two loves Leaving their homes For an unknown land Seem to have met At the confluence of their lips Two waves Rising in the tides of love Break and meet At the beach of lips Two passions Asking each other Have […]
The Home by Rabindranath Tagore
hiding its last gold like a miser. The daylight sank deeper and deeper into the darkness, and the widowed land, whose harvest had been reaped, lay silent. Suddenly a boy’s shrill voice rose into the sky. He traversed the dark unseen, leaving the track of his song across the hush of the evening. His village […]
The Hero — English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore
I was travelling with my mother In a foreign land And going to a far away place. Mother, you were in a palanquin With its doors slightly ajar And I was cantering along On a chestnut horse Raising clouds of dust. When in the west the sun set And it was evening It seemed we […]
The Golden Boat by Rabindranath Tagore
I sit on the river bank, sad and alone. The sheaves lie gathered, harvest has ended, The river is swollen and fierce in its flow. As we cut the paddy it started to rain. One small paddy-field, no one but me – Flood-waters twisting and swirling everywhere. Trees on the far bank; smear shadows like […]
The Gardener XXVII: Trust Love by Rabindranath Tagore
Do not close up your heart.” “Ah no, my friend, your words are dark, I cannot understand them.” “Pleasure is frail like a dewdrop, while it laughs it dies. But sorrow is strong and abiding. Let sorrowful love wake in your eyes.” “Ah no, my friend, your words are dark, I cannot understand them.” “The […]
The Gardener XXVI: What Comes From Your Willing Hands by Rabindranath Tagore
hands I take. I beg for nothing more.” “Yes, yes, I know you, modest mendicant, you ask for all that one has.” “If there be a stray flower for me I will wear it in my heart.” “But if there be thorns?” “I will endure them.” “Yes, yes, I know you, modest mendicant, you ask […]
The Gardener XXIX: Speak To Me My Love by Rabindranath Tagore
words what you sang. The night is dark. The stars are lost in clouds. The wind is sighing through the leaves. I will let loose my hair. My blue cloak will cling round me like night. I will clasp your head to my bosom; and there in the sweet loneliness murmur on your heart. I […]
The Gardener XI: Come As You Are by Rabindranath Tagore
your toilet. If your braided hair has loosened if the parting of your hair be not straight, if the ribbons of your bodice be not fastened, do not mind. Come as you are; do not loiter over your toilet. Come, with quick steps over the grass. If the raddle come from your feet because of […]
The Gardener LXXIX: I Often Wonder by Rabindranath Tagore
the boundaries of recognition between man and the beast whose heart knows no spoken language. Through what primal paradise in a remote morning of creation ran the simple path by which their hearts visited each other. Those marks of their constant tread have not been effaced though their kinship has been long forgotten. Yet suddenly […]
The Gardener LVII: I Plucked Your Flower by Rabindranath Tagore
I pressed it to my heart and the thorn pricked. When the day waned and it darkened, I found that the flower had faded, but the pain remained. More flowers will come to you with perfume and pride, O world! But my time for flower-gathering is over, and through the dark night I have not […]
The Gardener LV: It Was Mid-Day by Rabindranath Tagore
away . The sun was strong in the sky. I had done my work and sat alone on my balcony when you went away. Fitful gusts came winnowing through the smells of may distant fields. The doves cooed tireless in the shade, and a bee strayed in my room hum- ming the news of many […]
The Call Of The Far — English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore
I am athirst for the far. My time passes by And in an absent mind I keep waiting at my window Hoping and hoping you will come. O how my entire being Is eager for your intimate touch! O you far, O you boundless far So irresistible is the call of your flute But I […]
The Beginning by Rabindranath Tagore
its mother. She answered, half crying, half laughing, and clasping the baby to her breast- “You were hidden in my heart as its desire, my darling. You were in the dolls of my childhood’s games; and when with clay I made the image of my god every morning, I made the unmade you then. You […]
The Astronomer by Rabindranath Tagore
entangled among the beaches of that Dadam tree, couldn’t somebody catch it?” But dada laughed at me and said, “Baby, you are the silliest child I have ever known. The moon is ever so far from us, how could anybody catch it?” I said, “Dada, how foolish you are! When mother looks out of her […]
Religious Obsession — translation from Dharmamoha by Rabindranath Tagore
He is blind He only kills and gets killed. Even an atheist is blessed Because he doesn’t have the vanity of any faith. Humbly he lights up his reason Defies the authority of scriptures And seeks only the good of men. He who kills as infidels The followers of other faiths Dishonours his own faith […]
Poems On Time by Rabindranath Tagore
and has time enough. ~ Time is a wealth of change, but the clock in its parody makes it mere change and no wealth. ~ Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, […]
Poems On Man by Rabindranath Tagore
to drown his own clamour of silence. ~ Man is immortal; therefore he must die endlessly. For life is a creative idea; it can only find itself in changing forms. ~ Man’s abiding happiness is not in getting anything but in giving himself up to what is greater than himself, to ideas which are larger […]
Poems On Love by Rabindranath Tagore
it seeks to prove inward joy by outward beauty. ~ Love does not claim possession, but gives freedom. ~ Love is an endless mystery, for it has nothing else to explain it. ~ Love’s gift cannot be given, it waits to be accepted. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, […]
Poems On Life by Rabindranath Tagore
we earn it by giving it. ~ Let the dead have the immortality of fame, but the living the immortality of love. ~ Life’s errors cry for the merciful beauty that can modulate their isolation into a harmony with the whole. ~ Life, like a child, laughs, shaking its rattle of death as it runs. […]
Poems On Beauty by Rabindranath Tagore
when she beholds her own face in a perfect mirror. ~ Beauty is in the ideal of perfect harmony which is in the universal being; truth the perfect comprehension of the universal mind. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — the […]
One Day In Spring…. by Rabindranath Tagore
In my lonely woods, In the lovely form of the Beloved. Came, to give to my songs, melodies, To give to my dreams, sweetness. Suddenly a wild wave Broke over my heart’s shores And drowned all language. To my lips no name came, She stood beneath the tree, turned, Glanced at my face, made sad […]
On The Nature Of Love by Rabindranath Tagore
a million people thread it in a million ways. We have trysts to keep in the darkness, but where or with whom – of that we are unaware. But we have this faith – that a lifetime’s bliss will appear any minute, with a smile upon its lips. Scents, touches, sounds, snatches of songs brush […]
My Friend, Come In These Rains — English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore
Evading all Like silent night In stealthy steps you have come. The morning has closed its eyes The wind is hopelessly sighing And the blue naked sky Is overcast with endless clouds In the woodland the birds do not sing In every home the doors are closed You are a lonely wayfarer on a lonely […]
Lover’s Gifts LVI: The Evening Was Lonely by Rabindranath Tagore
heart became dry, and it seemed to me that beauty was a thing fashioned by the traders in words. Tired I shut the book and snuffed the candle. In a moment the room was flooded with moonlight. Spirit of Beauty, how could you, whose radiance overbrims the sky, stand hidden behind a candle’s tiny flame? […]
Lord Of My Life by Rabindranath Tagore
art thou pleased, Lord of my Life? For I give to thee my cup filled with all the pain and delight that the crushed grapes of my heart had surrendered, I wove with rhythm of colors and song cover for thy bed, And with the molten gold of my desires I fashioned playthings for thy […]
Lamp Of Love by Rabindranath Tagore
Kindle it with the burning fire of desire! There is the lamp but never a flicker of a flame–is such thy fate, my heart? Ah, death were better by far for thee! Misery knocks at thy door, and her message is that thy lord is wakeful, and he calls thee to the love-tryst through the […]
Kinu Goala’s Alley – English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore
Named after Kinu the milkman. By its side stands A two-storey building Its ground floor room Is enclosed by iron railings. It is thoroughly damp Here and there its walls Bear ugly damp marks In places their plasters are also peeling off. On its door hangs a rag Torn from a bale of plain cloth […]
In The Dusky Path Of A Dream by Rabindranath Tagore
Her house stood at the end of a desolate street. In the evening breeze her pet peacock sat drowsing on its perch, and the pigeons were silent in their corner. She set her lamp down by the portal and stood before me. She raised her large eyes to my face and mutely asked, “Are you […]
In The Country – English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore
As close is the earth beneath my feet As are close to me The fruits, flowers and the air and water. Here I love him too As I love the songs of birds The murmur of streams The mellowness around The light of dawn and the greeneries of trees. Here I find him beautiful As […]
I Found A Few Old Letters by Rabindranath Tagore
I found a few old letters of mine carefully hidden in thy box-a few small toys for thy memory to play with. With a timorous heart thou didst try to steal these trifles from the turbulent stream of time which washes away planets and stars, and didst say, “These are only mine!” Alas, there is […]
I Cast My Net Into The Sea by Rabindranath Tagore
I dragged up from the dark abyss things of strange aspect and strange beauty — some shone like a smile, some glistened like tears, and some were flushed like the cheeks of a bride. When with the day’s burden I went home, my love was sitting in the garden idly tearing the leaves of a […]
Gift Of The Great – English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore
Those whose minds are wrought The base of whose existence becomes shaky Those who are listless Let them listen – Don’t ever forget yourselves. Let you meet every day Those who have won over death Those who have kept their torch aflame Above whatever is mean and small If you make them dwarf The sin […]
From Afar by Rabindranath Tagore
From a distance I watch him. With the dust and the water, With the fruit and the flower, With the All he is rushing forward. He is always on the surface, Tossed by the waves and dancing to the rhythm Of joy and suffering. The least loss makes him suffer, The least wound hurts him– […]
Dream Girl by Rabindranath Tagore
You are also the creation of men From the core of their heart They have endowed you with charm. With golden threads of similes Your dress the poet weaves. To immortalize your image The painter puts on your face An ever fresh glow. So many colours, scents and costumes – From the seas come pearls […]
Cruel Kindness by Rabindranath Tagore
But you have saved me denying. All through my life This your cruel kindness Has filled my being. The things you gave me without asking – This sky full of light This body, this soul and this mind Saving me ever from too much craving For these great gifts you are making me fit. The […]
Compensation by Rabindranath Tagore
Everybody is blaming me for you! They are saying, ‘In all his songs Her picture he is painting In her ears He is singing only love songs Because of his addiction He is composing Frivolous words into poesy And all over the land at the top of his voice He is raving and shouting.’ My […]
Birth Story by Rabindranath Tagore
‘From where did I come, Me where did you find?’ Holding him tight in an embrace In tears and laughter The mum replies, ‘You were in my mind As my deepest wish. You were with me When I was a child And played with my dolls. When worshiping Shiva in the morning I made and […]
At The Last Watch by Rabindranath Tagore
That pettiest of gifts, Is but a sugar-coating over neglect. Any passerby can make a gift of it To a street beggar, Only to forget the moment the first corner is turned. I had not hoped for anything more that day. You left during the last watch of night. I had hoped you would say […]