A poem by Rabindranath Tagore (Bengali)
Translated by Partha Chattopadhyay
My entire life was spent shedding drops of tears
Last night a song came to my mind
When you were not there
Not at all there
With me and by my side, oh my beloved.
To pass on the message of my love to you
My entire life was spent shedding drops of tears
Tears — so silent and speechless.
But one day
That very message of my own
Got lit up in a sudden dark moment
In the sacred fire of music .
But even then you were not there with me
Oh, my beloved.
When the sun popped up at dawn
I thought that
I would tell you that message
That very message of my own woven with threads of emotion.
The air is filled with sweet and romantic fragrance of the flowers
The sky is echoed with the untiring chirping of the birds
But that message — that very message of my own
Just couldn’t fit into the notes of music
However hard I tried.
It is only because you were not there
Not at all there with me and by my side
Oh, my beloved.
This translation was first published in Meghdutam.com (between 1999 to 2002)
