They came and said,
Poet, talk about death.
I told them
He is my most intimate friend
He is everywhere
In my every limb.
My heart beats to his rhythms
My blood flows to his pleasure.
He is always telling
Move, move on
Die every moment
Follow my momentum.
If you stop
And cling on to things
You will find
All your flowers are stale
All your rivers have lost their flow
Their beds are full of clay
And the stars are pale.
He also tells
Don't ever stop
Don't look back
Leave everything behind
That is aged, tired or stalled.
Like your cowboy
I always drive all
From age to age
From land to land.
I have followed life
Ever since it began to flow
Not allowing it to get lost
In a stagnant pond
Forever urging
Not to accept the bounds of its banks
But to meet the sea
Which is me.
The present
Wants to stay.
He wants to burden
With a lot of load
And he wants to swallow
Everything.
Like a giant overfed
He wants always to sleep -
But that is the end of all.
I am there to save
From this catastrophe
And lead everyone
To endless possibilities.
Translation of poem 39 from the collection Sheshsaptak by Rabindranath Tagore. The original poem in Bengali script is at
