Poems of Rabindranath Tagore

the mountain fir in its rustling
modulates the memory of its fights
with the storm
into a hymn of peace

the god honoured me with its fight
when I was rebellious
ignored me when I was languid

sectarians think
that they have the sea
ladled into their private pond

in the shady depth of life
are the lonely nests of memories
that shrink from words

let my love find its strength
in the service of day
peace in the union of night;
life sends up in blades of grass
its silent hymn of praise
to the unnamed light

stars of night are to me
memorials of my day’s faded flowers

open your door to that which must go—
loss becomes unseemly when obstructed;
true end is not in the reaching of limit
but in a completion which is limitless

the shore whispers to the sea:
“write to me what the waves struggle to say…”
the sea writes in foam again and again—
wipes off its lines in boisterous despair

Rabindranath Tagore (1928)