Lack and Lavishness

Beside the slippery slope of a desolate river
among the tall grasses I asked a damsel
carrying her lamp shading with her mantle
to lend her light for my home dark and deserted.

She raised her dark eyes for a moment

looked at me staring through the dusk, and floated
her lamp on the stream as the daylight waned
in the west and I stood watching that flickering
flame, uselessly, drifting in the tide!

In the silence of the middle night I asked a maid

when all her lights are lit where she was going
with her lamp, pleading also from her
to lend her light for my home dark and deserted.

She raised her dark eyes for a moment

looking at me, stood there a moment with doubt
and said, she has come at last to dedicate her lamp
to the wide sky, and I stood and watched
her light, uselessly, burning in the void!

In a moonless gloom of midnight I asked

a woman what she was searching holding closer
to her heart her lamp, with that I requested her
to lend her light for my home dark and deserted.

She stopped for a minute and thought
and gazed at me in the pitch dark
saying that she has brought her light to join
the carnival of lamps, and I stood and watched
her little lamp, uselessly, lost among lights!

Adopted from Tagore’s Gitanjali, poem 64

Henry Victor          24.12.2012