Bondage to Finery

Playing, for child, brings no pleasure

when adorned with prince’s robes
and jewelled chains round the neck
for it will fetter him with fear.

His robes, he will think, may be frayed

or stained with dust, hence, keeping
himself away from the world, and the child
will be afraid even to make a single move.

Mother your bondage to finery is no gain
if you keep your child shut off from the healthful
dust of the earth, to rob his right of entrance
to the great fair of common human life!

Adopted from Tagore’s Gitanjali, poem 08

Henry Victor          07.01.2013