All you possess time steals
Time also heals all your sense of losses
Thus the teeming world remains full
The birds leave one by one
But their songs do not end
There is no end to the wounds it receives
Yet in perfect health the world always is.
Only here and there
Only within the bounds of passing moments
Sorrows and sufferings are yours and mine
They don’t find a place in the boundless universe
They remain within their own fence.
And at the end of your journey where all journeys end
You will find
All gains and losses are waves
Rising and falling with rising and ebbing tides
Same is the game and same is their end.
Your cries of pain and your screams of pleasure
Are twin notes of the same song
Strung by the same guitar
They meet in an ultimate harmony
An endless silence.
Hush the wailings and pangs of your stricken heart
Keep them within your own small self
Without any complaints join the procession
The pilgrims who pass in an endless pageant
Find your serene self in peace
The peace that death brings in the end
Bereft of all possessions it is lonely
And absorbed in its own self.
In a limitless darkness
The daily dust and all your losses are lost
Like a peaceful sea
This vast world at its ultimate verge
Under the meditating northern stars
Finds in that peace its own limits
Filled with love this peace stands still
It transcends the limits of body and mind
It is sweet
May you find a restful resort
In its ultimate forgetfulness.
Transcreation of the poem Jatri from the collection Parishesh by Rabindranath Tagore.
Any translation is an injustice to this marvelous poem which, if possible, one must read in the original.
Thanks for reading and commenting, dear Rupradha. I would request you to read the original poem - written in rhyming free verse it is one of Tagore's greatest poems, but unfortunately even very few Bengalis read it.
