FIREFLIES–Rabindranath Tagore

Let my love, like sunlight, surround you
and yet give you illumined freedom.
—- —- —- — — —- —- —-
Days are coloured bubbles
that float upon the surface of fathomless
night.
* * * * * * * * *
April, like a child,
writes hieroglyphs on dust with flowers,
wipes them away and forgets.
———- * —– * ———
My heart to-day smiles at its past night of tears
like a wet tree glistening in the sun
after the rain is over.
——-*—*—–*—–*—*—
The fire of pain traces for my soul
a luminous path across her sorrow.
——- —— —- —— —–
My offerings are not for the temple at the end
of the road,
but for the wayside shrines
that surprise me at every bend.
* * * * * * * * * * *
These paper boats of mine are meant to dance
on the ripples of hours,
and not to reach any destination.
——— * —- * — * —–
When death comes and whispers to me,
“Thy days are ended,”
let me say to him, “I have lived in love
and not in mere time.”
He will ask, “Will thy songs remain?”
I shall say, “I know not, but this I know
that often when I sang I found my eternity.”

——Rabindranath Tagore
From ” Lekhan ” [1926] Bilingual and “Sphulinga”[1946]