It is mid-day now.
The little river
Shrunk and choked with weeds
Has lost its current
And stands still.
A kingfisher is perched
On a half-sunken boat
Two cows graze
In a field on the banks
Now without any crop.
Keeping their heads
Above the water
Peaceful buffalos
Are half-submerged.
Anchored by the bank
Is an empty boat
Famished by heat
The crows take their bath
Fluttering their wings
On the green grassy bank
With its tail upturned
Dances a little bird.
Some colorful insects
With transparent wings
Now float in the air
Now rest on the weeds.
The white swan
By the village bathing place
With much noise
Cleans its wings
With its wet beaks.
The hot summer winds
Smelling of dry grass
Fly far away.
At intervals
The village dogs
Are heard to quarrel.
The cattle lowing
The birds chirping
The old banyan rustling
The kite crying
In the distant skies
The moaning sound
Of the anchored boat '
The sound of noon
Indistinct and plaintive
Cool shady groves
The village immersed
In absolute peace
Like a deep sleep -
In the midst of all these
I am a stranger
Yet I do not feel estranged
I feel I am one of them
It also seems
After a long time
I have returned
To my own native place
I have gone back in time
To my former life
To that fresh morning
When like an infant
Clinging on to its mother's breast
I was inseparably mixed
With land, air, water and the sky
And along with all living beings
That thrive on this earth
I was joyously sucking
The elixir of my first existence.
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Translation of the poem 'Madhyahna' from the collection Chaitali (The Summer Harvest) by Rabindranath Tagore. The original poem in Bengali script may be viewed at http://www.rabindra-rachanabali.nltr.org/node/10421.
