The Dancing Girl's Worship

Song আমায় ক্ষমো হে ক্ষমো

FORGIVE me, forgive!
Accept my salutation:
For when I remember thee, O matchless one,
My soul melts into streams of dancing,
Which overflow my body.
The cry of my limbs is a hymn
in rhythm that sings thy praise.
My love of thee overflows in the music of my gestures.


My heart throbs with a divine pain that quivers
through all my being.
In waves of rhythm surges up a sea of peace,
on the bosom of which beauty is born.
All my senses, all my sorrows, are bringing their last sacrifice.
Shame me not by refusing my offering.
My love of thee overflows in the music
of my gestures.

I have gathered no flowers in the garden.
I have brought no fruit from the forest.
No holy water fills my jar.
A fountain of love springs up within me
Which my limbs cannot hold.
May it find resting place at thy feet
And be swallowed up in one last act of homage.
My love of thee overflows in the music of my gestures. (88)*.


Song হে মহাজীবন, হে মহামরণ

THOU life supernal,
O thou death supreme,
I take refuge in Thee.
Let me light my dark lamp at Thy fire!
May the print of glory on my brow
Remove my shame forever.

Thy feet are the transforming fire
That will transmute my dross to gold.
Let all that is dark within me burst into flames,
And the veil of error be torn away. (76)*.


Song নিশীথে কী কয়ে গেল মনে
WHAT whisper came to me at dead of night?
I know not.
Was it waking, was it sleeping?
I know not.

I work at home, I wonder on the road,
But what voice is this that sings in my breast!
I know not.

My heart aches with a nameless pain -
Is it fear? Is it triumph?

Again and again it cries to me
"Come away!"
Does it echo in my bosom or in the depths
of the sky?

I know not. (23)*.

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*from "The Dancing Girl's Worship" (1927) i.e. Tagore's own translation of his Bengali drama "Natir Puja", based on a Buddhist legend.