Living Falsehood

Onetime I thought I could outdo
everyone else in the world both in wealth
and power amassing in my treasuries
the money due for distribution.

Soon sleep overtook me while I lay
relaxed on the bed that was not mine,
and on waking I found I was a prisoner
in my own treasure-house.

Then I said that it was my master
the Lord of this universe
that bound me a prisoner
binding me with unbreakable chain.

Now I realize that it was I who imprisoned
myself chaining my soul with falsehood,
the chain with unbreakable links that I worked
so hard to find at the end myself in its grip.

I had hoped my matchless power will hold
the world captive leaving me in a freedom,
and for this night and day I worked at the chain
with huge fires and cruel hard strokes.

Adopted from Tagore’s Gitanjali, poem 31

Henry Victor          12.10.2012