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, its age-old pain,
Its 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 same distressful tears of farewell..
Old love but in shapes that renew and renew forever.
Today it is heaped at your feet, it has found its end in you
The love of all man’s days both past and forever:
Universal joy, universal sorrow, universal life.
The memories of all loves merging with this one love of ours..
And the songs of every poet past and forever.
Rabindranath Tagore
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Tagore's poems to me always feel like songs. And indeed, he says as much in his last line, for this is what they are: songs from the heart, songs that are felt in the heart, and songs that sing in the heart. Thank you, Emma.
ReplyDeleteYou're so welcome, David. And yes, this particular poem feels like a song. It's why I chose this image of a sitar player, an instrument that Tagore mastered. To me this poem is the most beautiful song ever written or sung.. it touches the core of both music and love.
DeleteReally beautiful! It stays inside our chest like a melody ...
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, Emma.
Have a nice Sunday.
Hello Sónia, thank you for coming by. I am pleased with your comment: it stays inside our chest like a melody.. and I am sure that Tagore would have been very pleased too.. he was after all not only a poet but a singer as well. Keep safe and healthy, dear friend!
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