Complete Works. Rabindranath Tagore

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      "What is there but the sky, O Sun, that can hold thine image?"

      "I dream of thee, but to serve thee I can never hope," the dewdrop wept and said, "I am too small to take thee unto me, great lord, and my life is all tears."

      "I illumine the limitless sky, yet I can yield myself up to a tiny drop of dew," thus the Sun said; "I shall become but a sparkle of light and fill you, and your little life will be a laughing orb."

LXIII

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      Not for me is the love that knows no restraint, but like the foaming wine that having burst its vessel in a moment would run to waste.

      Send me the love which is cool and pure like your rain that blesses the thirsty earth and fills the homely earthen jars.

      Send me the love that would soak down into the centre of being, and from there would spread like the unseen sap through the branching tree of life, giving birth to fruits and flowers.

      Send me the love that keeps the heart still with the fulness of peace.

LXIV

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      The sun had set on the western margin of the river among the tangle of the forest.

      The hermit boys had brought the cattle home, and sat round the fire to listen to the master, Guatama, when a strange boy came, and greeted him with fruits and flowers, and, bowing low at his feet, spoke in a bird-like voice—"Lord, I have come to thee to be taken into the path of the supreme Truth.

      "My name is Satyakâma."

      "Blessings be on thy head," said the master.

      "Of what clan art thou, my child? It is only fitting for a

       Brahmin to aspire to the highest wisdom."

      "Master," answered the boy, "I know not of what clan I am. I shall go and ask my mother."

      Thus saying, Satyakâma took leave, and wading across the shallow stream, came back to his mother's hut, which stood at the end of the sandy waste at the edge of the sleeping village.

      The lamp burnt dimly in the room, and the mother stood at the door in the dark waiting for her son's return.

      She clasped him to her bosom, kissed him on his hair, and asked him of his errand to the master.

      "What is the name of my father, dear mother?" asked the boy.

      "It is only fitting for a Brahmin to aspire to the highest wisdom, said Lord Guatama to me."

      The woman lowered her eyes, and spoke in a whisper.

      "In my youth I was poor and had many masters. Thou didst come to thy mother Jabâlâ's arms, my darling, who had no husband."

      The early rays of the sun glistened on the tree-tops of the forest hermitage.

      The students, with their tangled hair still wet with their morning bath, sat under the ancient tree, before the master.

      There came Satyakâma.

      He bowed low at the feet of the sage, and stood silent.

      "Tell me," the great teacher asked him, "of what clan art thou?"

      "My lord," he answered, "I know it not. My mother said when I asked her, 'I had served many masters in my youth, and thou hadst come to thy mother Jabâlâ's arms, who had no husband.'"

      There rose a murmur like the angry hum of bees disturbed in their hive; and the students muttered at the shameless insolence of that outcast.

      Master Guatama rose from his seat, stretched out his arms, took the boy to his bosom, and said, "Best of all Brahmins art thou, my child. Thou hast the noblest heritage of truth."

LXV

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      May be there is one house in this city where the gate opens for ever this morning at the touch of the sunrise, where the errand of the light is fulfilled.

      The flowers have opened in hedges and gardens, and may be there is one heart that has found in them this morning the gift that has been on its voyage from endless time.

LXVI

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      Listen, my heart, in his flute is the music of the smell of wild flowers, of the glistening leaves and gleaming water, of shadows resonant with bees' wings.

      The flute steals his smile from my friend's lips and spreads it over my life.

LXVII

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      You always stand alone beyond the stream of my songs.

      The waves of my tunes wash your feet but I know not how to reach them.

      This play of mine with you is a play from afar.

      It is the pain of separation that melts into melody through my flute.

      I wait for the time when your boat crosses over to my shore and you take my flute into your own hands.

LXVIII

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      Suddenly the window of my heart flew open this morning, the window that looks out on your heart.

      I wondered to see that the name by which you know me is written in April leaves and flowers, and I sat silent.

      The curtain was blown away for a moment between my songs and yours.

      I found that your morning light was full of my own mute songs unsung; I thought that I would learn them at your feet—and I sat silent.

LXIX

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      You were in the centre of my heart, therefore when my heart wandered she never found you; you hid yourself from my loves and hopes till the last, for you were always in them.

      You were the inmost joy in the play of my youth, and when I was too busy with the play the joy was passed by.

      You sang to me in the ecstasies of my life and I forgot to sing to you.

LXX

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      When you hold your lamp in the sky it throws its light on my face and its shadow falls over you.

      When I hold the lamp of love in my heart its light falls on you and I am left standing behind in the shadow.

LXXI