The Unfamiliar

by Kumud Biswas

Here none is familiar

Everybody is unknown

Passing along his own way

In his own mystery

All alone

He has no companion.

Fitting him within an everyday frame

We define him

Within those defined boundaries

He does his daily duties

At fixed wages

Here he is common.

Then one day blows love’s spring wind

It blows away the barriers of boundaries

Baring him who is eternally unknown.

We see him in his individuality

We see him unique

He is incomparable.

To reach him

We build a bridge with songs

To welcome him

We use the language of flowers.

With our eyes we say

You are beyond what we usually see

And our mind says

As the night comes

Ushering in the starry heaven

You have come as the messenger of that mystery

Which is unreachable

Suddenly we see in us

Who is unknown

And we fail to fathom our feeling

Every moment it appears in a new form.

Translation of poem 12 from the collection Shesh Saptak by Rabindranath Tagore.
The original poem is at http://www.rabindra-rachanabali.nltr.org/node/14448.

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