Thursdays With Tagore - March 25

Every Thursday, I shall read one of Tagore's poems as translated in this book or some other poem I can find. I shall post some lines from the poem and perhaps a detail of how I liked this poem or not. Any others who want to join in this meme are absolutely welcome to do so! 

This is a poem that goes much on the lines of Shakespeare's 'All the world's a stage. And all the men and women merely players', though I personally think Tagore's take on this is more impressive. I love the exquisite use of words to create this atmosphere of an epic feeling.

In creation's vast field

the play of fireworks in the skies

with suns and stars

is on a cosmic scale.

I too came from the invisible without beginning

with a minute fire-particle to a tiny spot

of space and time

Now as I enter the last act, the lamp's flame

flickers, the shadows reveal

the illusory nature of this play.

Joys and sorrows, dramatic disguises,

slowly become slack.

Hundreds of actors and actresses through the ages

have left their many-coloured costumes outside the door

of the theatre. I look and see

in the greenroom of hundreds of extinguished stars 

the king of the theatre standing still, alone.

The final few lines are especially brilliant. They made me pause and understand the magnificent imagination Tagore has, to interpret something as commonplace as life, death and God.  The more I re-read this poem, the more I love it! :)