Gitanjali 95
I was not aware of the moment when I first crossed the threshold ofthis life.
What was the power that made me open out into this vast mystery like abud in the forest at midnight!
When in the morning I looked upon the light I felt in a moment that Iwas no stranger in this world, that the inscrutable without name andform had taken me in its arms in the form of my own mother.
Even so, in death the same unknown will appear as ever known to me. Andbecause I love this life, I know I shall love death as well.
The child cries out when from the right breast the mother takes itaway, in the very next moment to find in the left one its consolation.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Gitanjali 95 is in the public domain. This text is taken from Gitanjali (Song Offerings), a collection of prose translations made by the author from the original Bengali, with an introduction by W. B. Yeats (India Society, London, 1912), Project Gutenberg ebook #7164; 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, Gitanjali 95, in Gitanjali (Song Offerings) (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7164, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tagore-gitanjali/poem-95.html, id L27957.
About this section
Gitanjali 95 is prose, printed in 5 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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