The Gardener 2
"Ah, poet, the evening draws near; your hair is turning grey."Do you in your lonely musing hear the message of the hereafter?"
"It is evening," the poet said, "and I am listening because someone may call from the village, late though it be."I watch if young straying hearts meet together, and two pairs ofeager eyes beg for music to break their silence and speak forthem."Who is there to weave their passionate songs, if I sit on theshore of life and contemplate death and the beyond?
"The early evening star disappears."The glow of a funeral pyre slowly dies by the silent river."Jackals cry in chorus from the courtyard of the deserted house inthe light of the worn-out moon."If some wanderer, leaving home, come here to watch the night andwith bowed head listen to the murmur of the darkness, who is thereto whisper the secrets of life into his ears if I, shutting mydoors, should try to free myself from mortal bonds?
"It is a trifle that my hair is turning grey."I am ever as young or as old as the youngest and the oldest of this village."Some have smiles, sweet and simple, and some a sly twinkle in their eyes."Some have tears that well up in the daylight, and others tearsthat are hidden in the gloom.They all have need for me, and I have no time to brood over the afterlife."I am of an age with each, what matter if my hair turns grey?"
Words in this poem
- hereafter adv.
- In time to come; in some future time or state. [AS. hræfter.]
- contemplate v. t.
- To look at on all sides or in all its bearings; to view or consider with continued attention; to regard with deliberate care; to meditate on; to study. [L. contemplatus, p.p. of contemplari to contemplate; con- + templum a space for observation marked out by the augur. See Temple.]
- pyre n.
- A funeral pile; a combustible heap on which the dead are burned; hence, any pile to be burnt. [L. pure, Gr. Fire.]
- twinkle v. i.
- To open and shut the eye rapidly; to blink; to wink. [OE. twinklen, AS. twinclian; akin to OE. twinken to blink, wink, G. zwinken, zwinkern, and perhaps to E. twitch.]
- daylight n.
- The light of day as opposed to the darkness of night; the light of the sun, as opposed to that of the moon or to artificial light.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Gardener 2 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 2, in The Gardener (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6686, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tagore-gardener/poem-2.html, id L27638.
About this section
The Gardener 2 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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