The Gardener 16
Hands cling to hands and eyes linger on eyes: thus begins therecord of our hearts.It is the moonlit night of March; the sweet smell of henna is inthe air; my flute lies on the earth neglected and your garland offlowers in unfinished.This love between you and me is simple as a song.
Your veil of the saffron colour makes my eyes drunk.The jasmine wreath that you wove me thrills to my heart like praise.It is a game of giving and withholding, revealing and screeningagain; some smiles and some little shyness, and some sweet uselessstruggles.This love between you and me is simple as a song.
No mystery beyond the present; no striving for the impossible; noshadow behind the charm; no groping in the depth of the dark.This love between you and me is simple as a song.
We do not stray out of all words into the ever silent; we do notraise our hands to the void for things beyond hope.It is enough what we give and we get.We have not crushed the joy to the utmost to wring from it the wine of pain.This love between you and me is simple as a song.
Words in this poem
- moonlit a.
- Illumined by the moon.
- wove
- p. pr. & rare vb. n. of Weave.
- shyness n.
- The quality or state of being shy.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Gardener 16 is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Gardener, translated by the author from the original Bengali (Macmillan, London and New York, 1913; this text the 1915 printing), Project Gutenberg ebook #6686; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Rabindranath Tagore, The Gardener 16, in The Gardener (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6686, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tagore-gardener/poem-16.html, id L27652.
About this section
The Gardener 16 is prose, printed in 4 paragraphs. It is part of the edition and is kept for reading, but nothing here is measured: the line breaks are the printer's, so no metre, rhyme scheme or scansion is stated.
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