If you don’t love me
I don't have the power to feel angry –
Even to suggest such a thing
I don't feel obliged
I don’t have any ego
And however you may deceive me
Your image will remain in my mind.
Yet if you stay
It will solve all my problems
More than mere memory
I would rather like the real.
Besides, it is not unlikely
Your memory may get lost
Those who don’t like you
They may also spread some scandal.
Moreover, time can’t be bad all the time
Someday you may pardon my tears
And if by chance one goes bad
My fate may give me four more.
Yet if you stay
All my problems will get solved
Above all I like one like you
More than so many as four.
Translation of the humourous love poem Tothapi from the collection Kshanika by Rabindranath Tagore. Dedicated to one of his closest friends, Lokendranath Palit, this collection composed in his youth is full of such light verses.
