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 […]
Innermost One by Rabindranath Tagore
who awakens my being with his deep hidden touches. He it is who puts his enchantment upon these eyes and joyfully plays on the chords of my heart in varied cadence of pleasure and pain. He it is who weaves the web of this maya in evanescent hues of gold and silver, blue and green, […]
Give Me Strength by Rabindranath Tagore
strike at the root of penury in my heart. Give me the strength lightly to bear my joys and sorrows. Give me the strength to make my love fruitful in service. Give me the strength never to disown the poor or bend my knees before insolent might. Give me the strength to raise my mind […]
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 […]
Free Love by Rabindranath Tagore
But it is otherwise with thy love which is greater than theirs, and thou keepest me free. Lest I forget them they never venture to leave me alone. But day passes by after day and thou art not seen. If I call not thee in my prayers, if I keep not thee in my heart, […]
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 […]
Flower by Rabindranath Tagore
droop and drop into the dust. I may not find a place in thy garland, but honour it with a touch of pain from thy hand and pluck it. I fear lest the day end before I am aware, and the time of offering go by. Though its colour be not deep and its smell […]
Farewell by Rabindranath Tagore
I bow to you all and take my departure. Here I give back the keys of my door —and I give up all claims to my house. I only ask for last kind words from you. We were neighbors for long, but I received more than I could give. Now the day has dawned and […]
Fairyland by Rabindranath Tagore
into the air. The walls are of white silver and the roof of shining gold. The queen lives in a palace with seven courtyards, and she wears a jewel that cost all the wealth of seven kingdoms. But let me tell you, mother, in a whisper, where my king’s palace is. It is at the […]
Face To Face by Rabindranath Tagore
shall I stand before thee face to face. With folded hands, O lord of all worlds, shall I stand before thee face to face. Under thy great sky in solitude and silence, with humble heart shall I stand before thee face to face. In this laborious world of thine, tumultuous with toil and with struggle, […]
Endless Time by Rabindranath Tagore
There is none to count thy minutes. Days and nights pass and ages bloom and fade like flowers. Thou knowest how to wait. Thy centuries follow each other perfecting a small wild flower. We have no time to lose, and having no time we must scramble for a chance. We are too poor to be […]
Dungeon by Rabindranath Tagore
I am ever busy building this wall all around; and as this wall goes up into the sky day by day I lose sight of my true being in its dark shadow. I take pride in this great wall, and I plaster it with dust and sand lest a least hole should be left in […]