Poems of Rabindranath Tagore

the lotus offers its beauty to the heavens;
the grass its service to the earth

the sun’s kiss mellows
into abandonment
the miserliness of the green fruit
that clings to its stem

flame met the earthen lamp in me—
what a great marvel of light!

mistakes live in the neighbourhood of truth
and therefore delude us

cloud laughed at rainbow
saying it was an upstart
gaudy in its emptiness;
rainbow calmly answered:
“I am real as the sun itself…”

let me not grope in vain in the dark
but keep my mind still in the faith
that the day will break and truth appear
in all its simplicity

through the silent night
I hear the returning vagrant hopes of morning
knock at my heart

my new love comes
bringing to me the eternal wealth of the old;
earth gazes at moon and wonders
that she should have all her music in her smile

day with its glare of curiosity
puts the stars to flight

Rabindranath Tagore (1928)