Friday 27 May 2011

Listen, can you hear it? by Rabindranath Tagore

Listen, can you hear it?
His bamboo flute speaks
the pure language of love.

The moon enlightens the trees,
the path, the sinuous Yamuna.
Oblivious of the jasmine’s scent

I stagger around,
disheveled heart bereft of modesty,
eyes wet with nerves and delight.

Tell me, dear friend, say it aloud:
is he not my own Dark Lord Syama?
Is it not my name his flute pours
into the empty evening?

For eons I longed for God,
I yearned to know him.
That’s why he has come to me now,
deep emerald Lord of my breath.

O Syama, whenever your faraway flute thrills
through the dark, I say your name,
only your name, and will my body to dissolve
in the luminous Yamuna.

Go to her, Lord, go now.
What’s stopping you?
The earth drowns in sleep.
Let’s go. I’ll walk with you.

~ Rabindranath Tagore

(From The Lover of God)
{expresses Radha’s point of view and then her friend’s voice closes the poem}

Tagore's earliest poems--an erotic sequence between Lord Krisha and his young lover Radha.

No comments:

Post a Comment