Call Him Home

by Kumud Biswas

O you Good Samaritan!
Call that wanderer home
Remove his fears.
He lives in a twilight zone
A black shadow follows him always
Some time in front some time behind
He thinks it is real
And that is the source of all his sorrows and fears.
Shed your light
The shadow will disappear
His fears will end.

He has always traveled by your gate
But he didn’t have the courage to go in
He was afraid his possessions he will lose
Show him his own world in your temple
Where the blotches of familiarity are erased
Where the marks of daily wear and tear disappear
Where he will look eternally bright.

He was an inmate of an inn
He clung on to the bed in his cabin
Paying its daily rent he passed his days
Afraid to leave
He acquired a lot of junks
And built a protective wall.
Draw him out in the open
Let him taste the safety and freedom of your home.

He didn’t have the time to know his own self
It was covered by a thick layer of mud
Remove that cover,
Show him he is light and joy
Show him his likeness to you.
To the blazing flame of your holy fire
Offer all his joys and sorrows
Whatever is perishable
In ashes let it perish.

O you Good Samaritan
Call him home
Who roams in the outside world as if lost
Help him to regain his soul.

Translation of poem 6 from the collection Patraput by Rabindranath Tagore. It was written at Santiniketan on 24^th October, 1935 when the poet was 74. The original poem is at http://www.rabindra-rachanabali.nltr.org/node/14168

23-Jun-2012

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Comments on this Poem

Thank you dear rdashby - Tagore's references to Jesus are direct in many places of his writings.Please read my Son of Man posted in boloji - it is the translation of a famous Tagore song which the poet wrote and sang on a Christmas. The language of the English Gitanjali always reminds one of the Bible.

TagoreBlog
23-Jun-2012 10:34 AM

Beautiful poem, even in translation. Of course, the Good Samaritan is from the eponymous parable in the New Testament. Tagore was obviously familiar with the figure of Jesus, and the mention of the Good Samaritan indicates deference for the teachings of Jesus. Gandhi too had this close knowledge of and deference towards Jesus - in one photo of him I recall a picture of the Sacred Heart on the wall behind. In both these great men one wonders if there was faith in Jesus that was suppressed in expression because Jesus had become so much a westernised cultural phenomenon under the brand name of Christianity as made it impossible to conceive of expression of faith outside that framework. Instead, both men had to rely on oblique reference to Jesus - yet, in doing so, had direct vision and contact with Jesus as the Truth that is Life.

rdashby
23-Jun-2012 10:08 AM