Time is endless in Your hand, O God. There is none to count
Your minutes.
Days and
nights pass, and ages bloom and fade like flowers. You know
how to wait.
Your
centuries follow one another in perfecting a small wildflower.
We have
not time to lose, and having no time, we must scramble for our
chances. We are too poor to be late.
Thus it is
that time goes by, while I give it to every querulous person
who claims it, and Your altar is empty of all offerings to the
last.
At the end of
the day, I hasten in fear lest the gate be shut, but I find
there is yet time.
Rabindranath
Tagore
(1861-1941)
About
Rabindranath Tagore :
Born in Calcutta into a
wealthy family, the son of the philosopher Debendranath Tagore, who studied in
London, is today considered the most important poet of modern-day India. Tagore,
along with Mahatma Gandhi is prized as the foremost intellectual and spiritual
advocate of India's liberation from imperial rule.
Tagore
was also a distinguished author, educator, social reformer and philosopher. In
1913 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature, and in 1915 he was knighted by the
British king George V. He lectured worldwide and was in personal contact with
renowned thinkers of his day from Europe and India.
Tagore's
writings are highly imaginative, deeply religious and imbued with his love of
nature and of his homeland, India.
On
the Shores of Eternity : Poems from Tagore on Immortality and
Beyond By
Deepak Chopra In this hauntingly beautiful
volume, Deepak Chopra presents new English versions of poems
by Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, a lifelong source of
inspiration for Chopra and the first Asian to win the Nobel
Prize for Literature.
When Tagore writes, "Death, my death / Whisper to me! /
For you alone have I kept watch day after day," romantic
ecstasy surges through every word. For Tagore the soul was
more real than any object, and he sang of death as a joyful
voyage home to the eternity from which we sprang. In these
poems we experience a dramatic alternative to the fearful
Western view of death. Through the magic of Tagore's lyricism
we begin to understand that by becoming familiar with death,
and watching it grow closer, we can come to live fully in the
present moment. As Tagore tells us so eloquently, "If you
weep because the sun has gone out / Your tears may blind you
to the stars."
Gitanjali
: A Collection of Prose Translations Made by the Author from
the Original Bengali While
traveling through one of the poorest regions in India, W. B.
Yeats was amazed to discover the women in the tea fields
singing the songs and poems of Rabindranath Tagore. This
striking scene led the great Irish poet to appreciate the
depth of India's far-reaching tradition of poetry and the fame
of this one Indian poet. Tagore's work is without equal and
plays an eminent role in twentieth century Indian
literature.The publication of the English edition of Gitanjali
in 1911 earned Rabindranath Tagore the Nobel Prize in
literature. A collection of over one hundred inspirational
poems, Gitanjali covers the breadth of life's
experiences, from the quiet pleasure of observing children at
play to a man's struggle with his god. These are poems that
transcend time and place.
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On
the Shores of Eternity : Poems from Tagore on Immortality and
Beyond
