O ye guileful one
You have kept the path of your creation
Cluttered with endless snares!
With skillful hands
You have laid
Traps of baseless beliefs
In simple lives.
With this deception you have marked the great
For him
You have left no cover of night.
The path that is shown by your heavenly light
Is the path of his innermost being
It is always transparently clear
With his simple faith
He keeps that path ever glowing.
It may seem crooked from without
But within it is straight
And for this he is proud.
People call him a credulous fool
But he achieves the truth in his soul
Bathed in his innermost light.
Nothing can deceive him
And the ultimate reward is his
He who has suffered this deception with ease
Gets at your hands
The everlasting right to eternal peace.
Translation of the last ever poem Rabindranath Tagore dictated at 9.30 AM on 30th July, 1941, shortly before his surgical operation. He never recovered to revise these lines. The original poem in Bengali script may be viewed at http://www.rabindra-rachanabali.nltr.org/node/13788.
