Cool draughts of peace

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.
~Rabindranath Tagore

Lotus by Carmine.shot

For Poetry Friday, we have Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 and was the first non-European to do so. I saw this interesting quote in Brittanica.com (by W. Andrew Robinson): "Tagore’s poems are virtually untranslatable, as are his more than 2,000 songs, which achieved considerable popularity among all classes of Bengali society." Virtually unstranslatable! I'm sure he has a good reason for saying that and I wish I knew what he meant. Hard to understand? Culturally-specific? Anyway, Rabindranath Tagore:

III

On the day when the lotus bloomed, alas, my mind was straying, and I knew it not. My basket was empty and the flower remained unheeded.

Only now and again a sadness fell upon me, and I started up from my dream and felt a sweet trace of a strange fragrance in the south wind.

That vague sweetness made my heart ache with longing and it seemed to me that it was the eager breath of the summer seeking for its completion.

I knew not then that it was so near, that it was mine, and that this perfect sweetness had blossomed in the depth of my own heart.

IV

Thou art the sky and thou art the nest as well. Oh, thou beautiful, there in the nest it is thy love that encloses the soul with colours and sounds and odours. There comes the morning with the golden basket in her right hand bearing the wreath of beauty, silently to crown the earth. And there comes the evening over the lonely meadows deserted by herds, through trackless paths, carrying cool draughts of peace in her golden pitcher from the western ocean of rest.

**************

Sarah Grace Tuttle has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Sarah!