Light

Oh, the source of all light!
Where is the light?
Light it with the burning fire
that desire!

There is the lamp
but never a flicker of a flame
Is such your fate, my heart?
Wouldn’t death be far better for you!

Misery knocks at your door
and her message is that your lord is wakeful
and he calls you to the love date
through the darkness of night.

The sky is overcast, nothing but gloom
with clouds and ceaseless rain
and I know not what this stirring
within me, certainly not its meaning.

A moment's flash of lightning in my sight
drags down a deeper gloom
and my heart gropes for the path
to where the music of the night calls me.

Oh, the source of all light
Where is the light?
Light it with the burning fire
that desire!

It thunders and the wind rushes screaming
through the void of the night that is black
black as a black stone.
Let not the hours pass by in the dark.

Oh, the source of all light!
Light the lamp of love
within me with your life
that burning fire, that desire!

Adopted from Tagore’s Gitanjali, poem 27

Henry Victor          09.10.2012