Theme: Creation

Endless Life

In the stream of endless death
Drifts endless life
At every step it is beset
By dangers and crises
Without any purpose
Why this ceaseless plying of this aimless boat
To reach what beaches
Of what unknown seas
And who directs it all!
This much only I know
Innumerable creatures
Are always on the move 
To give their something to someone
On their way often they pause
Who remains behind to receive
Also disappears after some time.
In the grip of death everything seems fruitless
Yet among this futility
Everything doesn’t end
Something remains.
To their last they give
Yet something of them survives.
The great treasure of existence
Fills a pot full of leaks –
Endless is its gain
Endless is its loss;
Ceaseless wastage
Cures the idleness to save
And this powers the process.
The formless mobile vast
Timelessly exists
But is absent in minutest minutes.
By what name shall I call him
Both existence and non-existence is whose essence
And like a bubble in whose flow I rise and sink?

Translation of poem 2 from the collection Rogshajyay (In Sick Bed) by Rabindranath Tagore. The original poem is at http://www.rabindra-rachanabali.nltr.org/node/12911
 

23-Jun-2012

More By  :  Kumud Biswas

Views: 1416     Comments: 2

Comments on this Poem

Comment KULDIP SINGH,
Your interest in Tagore is amazing. And I must thank you for reading my transcreations/translations of some of his poems and songs. These are not half as good as the original and I wish you could read them in original Bengali. Many of them are untranslatable.

TagoreBlog
23-Oct-2012 11:25 AM

Comment I have the privilege to go through your transcreation of poems of TAGORE. i have to reach the purport through my knowledge of Sanskrit for original and the translation in English available so far.Out of the 4000 thousand poems Tagore could find time to translate only 742 poems in English published by Sahitya Academy in one volume. Most of the meaningful poems have been abridged by the poet to make them more palatable to western reader. A publication by O.U.P. presents 306 lyrics from GIT BITAN in a limited convas. 51 poems selected at the 125 anniversary indicate a sample to right approach.
TAGORE presented the sublime aspect of human life with his poetic genius in a way which may be easily grasped and acted upon.Instead of paying a lip tribute to his grandeur there is a need to present the human aspect of his writings in theme vise arrangement.
i am thankful for your invaluable add in understanding TAGORE

KULDIP SINGH
23-Oct-2012 08:49 AM


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