21- 30

Scottburgh

21

THEY throw their shadows before them

who carry their lantern on their back.  

22

THAT I exist

 is a perpetual surprise

which is life.

23

“WE, the rustling leaves,

have a voice that answers the storms,

but who are you so silent?”

“I am a mere flower.”

24

REST belongs to the work

as the eyelids to the eyes.

25

MAN is a born child,

 his power is the power of growth.

26

GOD expects answers for the flowers he sends us,

not for the sun

 and the earth.

27

THE light that plays, like a naked child,

among the green leaves happily knows not

that man can lie.

28

O BEAUTY,

 find thyself in love,

not in the flattery of thy mirror.

29

MY heart beats her waves at the shore of the world

and writes upon it her signature in tears with the words,

 “I love thee.”

30

“MOON,

for what do you wait?”

“To salute the sun for whom I must make way.”

NEXT Poems

From: Stray Birds

By Rabindranath Tagore

[translated from Bengali to English by the author]

New York: The Macmillan Company, 1916