This I know
Once you lent my eyes
Endless light of day
Now O king
Its repayment you claim
I know I'll have to repay
But why on my evening lamp
You cast this shadow?
I am only a guest
To the world you built with light
If you have neglected to make
Or left
Anything incomplete
Let it be small or little
Please leave it at last
Where your chariot
Leaves its marks on the dust
There let me build my world
Grant me some light
Grant me some shadow
And also some dream
In the wake of departing light
You may find repaid
Some small remnants of your debt.
Translation of poem 4 from the collection Rogshajyay (In Sick bed) by Rabindranath Tagore. Written on 3rd November, 1940 - only a few months before his death in 1941. Compare poem 113 of Poems. The original in Bengali script may be viewed at
