THE TAME BIRD
WAS IN A CAGE
by:
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
THE tame bird was
in a cage, the free bird was in the forest.
They met when the time came, it
was a decree of fate.
The free bird cries, "O my love, let us fly to
the wood."
The cage bird whispers, "Come hither, let us both live
in the cage."
Says the free bird, "Among bars, where is there room
to spread one's wings?"
"Alas," cries the caged bird, "I
should not know where to sit perched in the sky."
The free bird
cries, "My darling, sing the songs of the woodlands."
The cage bird
sings, "Sit by my side, I'll teach you the speech of the learned."
The
forest bird cries, "No, ah no! songs can never be taught."
The cage
bird says, "Alas for me, I know not the songs of the woodlands."
There love is intense with longing, but they never can fly wing to wing.
Through
the bars of the cage they look, and vain is their wish to know each other.
They
flutter their wings in yearning, and sing, "Come closer, my love!"
The
free bird cries, "It cannot be, I fear the closed doors of the cage."
The cage bird whispers, "Alas, my wings are powerless and dead."
UNENDING
LOVE
by: Rabindranath Tagore
I seem to have loved you
in numberless forms, numberless times...
In life after life, in age after age,
forever.
My spellbound heart has made and remade the necklace of songs,
That
you take as a gift, wear round your neck in your many forms,
In life after
life, in age after age, forever.
Whenever I hear old chronicles of love,
it's age old pain,
It's ancient tale of being apart or together.
As I stare
on and on into the past, in the end you emerge,
Clad in the light of a pole-star,
piercing the darkness of time.
You become an image of what is remembered forever.
You
and I have floated here on the stream that brings from the fount.
At the heart
of time, love of one for another.
We have played along side millions of lovers,
Shared
in the same shy sweetness of meeting,
the distressful tears of farewell,
Old
.love but in shapes that renew and renew forever.
FIREFLIES
by: Rabindranath Tagore
I
touch God in my song as the hill touches the far-away sea with its waterfall.
The butterfly counts not months but moments,and has time enough.
Let
my love, like sunlight, surround you and yet give you illumined freedom.
Love
remains a secret even when spoken, for only a lover truly knows that he is loved.
Emancipation from the bondage of the soil is no freedom for the tree.
In
love I pay my endless debt to thee
for what thou art.
THE
GARDENER
by: Rabindranath Tagore
If you would have
it so,
I will end my singing.
If it sets your heart aflutter,
I will
take away my eyes from your face.
If it suddenly startles you in your
walk,
I will step aside and take another path.
If it confuses you
in your flower-weaving,
I will shun your lonely garden.
If it makes
the water wanton and wild,
I will not row my boat by your bank.
THE
CHILD ANGEL
by: Rabindranath Tagore
Let your life come
amongst them like a flame of light, my child,
unflickering and pure, and delight
them into silence.
They are cruel in their greed and their envy,
their
words are like hidden knives thirsting for blood.
Go and stand amidst
their scowling hearts, my child,
and let your gentle eyes fall upon them like
the
forgiving peace of the evening over the strife of the day.
Let
them see your face, my child, and thus know the
meaning of all things, let
them love you and love each other.
Come and take your seat in the bosom
of the limitless, my child.
At sunrise open and raise your heart like a blossoming
flower,
and at sunset bend your head and in silence
complete the worship
of the day.