31
THE come up to my window
like the yearning voice of the dumb earth.
32
HIS own mornings are new surprises to God.
33
LIFE finds its wealth by the claims of the world,
and its worth by the claims of love.
34
THE dry river-bed finds no thanks for its past.
35
THE bird wishes it were a cloud.
The cloud wishes it were a bird.
36
THE waterfall sings,
“I find my song,
when I find my freedom.”
37
I CANNOT tell why this heart languishes in silence.
It is for small needs it never asks,
or knows or remembers.
38
WOMAN,
when you move about in your household service
your limbs sing like a hill stream among its pebbles.
39
THE sun goes to cross the Western sea,
leaving its last salutation to the East.
40
DO not blame your food because you have no appetite.
From: Stray Birds
By Rabindranath Tagore
[translated from Bengali to English by the author]
New York: The Macmillan Company, 1916