( Translated from: "Ungrateful Sorrow (Grief)" by: Rabindranath Thakur (Tagore), in Lipika (means- Notes) : Collected Works, Vol-26, p. 105. ) At dawn shey(1) departed My mind tried to console me - " Everything is Maya(2)". Angrily I replied: "Here's this sewing box on the table, that flower-pot on the terrace, this monogrammed hand-fan on the bed--- all these are real." My mind said: "Yet, think again." I rejoined: " You better stop. Look at this storybook, the hairpin halfway amongst its leaves, signaling the rest is unread; if all these things are "Maya", then why should "shey" be more unreal?" My mind becomes silent. A friend arrived and says: "That which is good is real it is never non-existent; entire world preserves and cherishes it its chest like a precious jewel in a necklace." I replied in anger: "How do you know? Is a body not good? Where did that body go?" Like a small boy in a rage hitting his mother, I began to strike at everything in this world that gave me shelter. And I screamed:" The world is treacherous." Suddenly, I was startled. It seemed like someone admonished me :" You- ungrateful ! " I looked at the crescent moon hidden behind the tamarisk tree outside my window. As if the dear departed one is smiling and playing hide-and-seek with me. From the depth of darkness punctuated by scattered stars came a rebuke: "when I let you grasp me you call it an deception, and yet when I remain concealed, why do you hold on to your faith in me with such conviction?" (1): "Shey" in Bengali can mean either he or she. (2): "Maya" meaning Unreal.
|