Gitanjali & Fruit-Gathering. Rabindranath Tagore

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      I have kissed this world with my eyes and my limbs; I have wrapt it within my heart in numberless folds; I have flooded its days and nights with thoughts till the world and my life have grown one,—and I love my life because I love the light of the sky so enwoven with me.

      If to leave this world be as real as to love it—then there must be a meaning in the meeting and the parting of life.

      If that love were deceived in death, then the canker of this deceit would eat into all things, and the stars would shrivel and grow black.

LIV

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      The Cloud said to me, "I vanish"; the Night said, "I plunge into the fiery dawn."

      The Pain said, "I remain in deep silence as his footprint."

      "I die into the fulness," said my life to me.

      The Earth said, "My lights kiss your thoughts every moment."

      "The days pass," Love said, "but I wait for you."

      Death said, "I ply the boat of your life across the sea."

LV

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      Tulsidas, the poet, was wandering, deep in thought, by the

       Ganges, in that lonely spot where they burn their dead.

      He found a woman sitting at the feet of the corpse of her dead husband, gaily dressed as for a wedding.

      She rose as she saw him, bowed to him, and said, "Permit me,

       Master, with your blessing, to follow my husband to heaven."

      "Why such hurry, my daughter?" asked Tulsidas. "Is not this earth also His who made heaven?"

      "For heaven I do not long," said the woman. "I want my husband."

      Tulsidas smiled and said to her, "Go back to your home, my child.

       Before the month is over you will find your husband."

      The woman went back with glad hope. Tulsidas came to her every day and gave her high thoughts to think, till her heart was filled to the brim with divine love.

      When the month was scarcely over, her neighbours came to her, asking, "Woman, have you found your husband?"

      The widow smiled and said, "I have."

      Eagerly they asked, "Where is he?"

      "In my heart is my lord, one with me," said the woman.

LVI

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