Clouds

Clouds are hills in vapor,
hills are clouds in stones,-
a phantasy in time’s dream.
– – – – – – – – – – — –
Light finds her treasure of colors
through the antagonism of clouds.
* * * * * * * * *
The cloud gives all its gold
to the departing sun
and greets the rising moon
with only a pale smile.
– – – – – – – – – –
Forests,the clouds of earth,
hold up to the sky their silence,
and clouds from above come down
in resonant showers.
* * * * * * * * * *
My clouds, sorrowing in the dark,
forget that they themselves
have hidden the sun.
– – – – – – – – – –
The clouded sky to-day bears the vision
of the shadow of a divine sadness
on the forehead of brooding eternity.
* * * * * * * * * * *
The cloud laughed at the rainbow
saying that it was an upstart
gaudy in its emptiness.
The rainbow calmly answered,
“I am as inevitably real as the sun himself.”
– – – – – – – – – – – –
The rainbow among the clouds may be great
but the little butterfly among the bushes is
greater.

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