Do you know my friend, where is heaven?
It has no address whatsoever
It has no beginning or end
It has no country
It has no landmarks
Nor has it nights or days.
I roamed in that heaven in empty space
As a fantastic being without substance
Then I was born on this earth from its dusts –
It must be the result of good things I did
For ages in my earlier lives
Heaven has now found its substance in my being
In my love, in my ardent heart
In all my joys and sorrows
And it sparkles in myriad colours
Swaying on the waves of my life and death.
Heaven rings with my songs
It finds its address in my being
And in great love it always seeks me
The horizons play joyous music
Drums are played by the seas
In the woodland flowers blossom
There is a rhapsody of merriment
In the forest foliage and mountain streams
The news of the heaven’s birth on this earth
The ecstatic air carries all around.
Translation of poem 28 from the collection Balaka by Rabindranath Tagore. Written at Shilaidaha Kuthibari on 20th Magh, 1321 BS (February, 1914).
