Pause, my heart, talk softly
And bow your head
The day has come to its end
Now comes evening, full of peace,
At the threshold of darkness vast
Lit up by innumerable lamps
In the temple of this universe
Now is the time to pray.
Listen, in the endless space
In somber melody
Soundlessly ring
Conch-shells and bells.
Lower your rebellious voice
Play a subdued tune
Forget all complaints
Let not your frustrated lust lament
Behold, the sky is silent
Silent are the shady woods
Immersed in sadness
All are mute
Like a virgin maid
The evening stands speechless
With her heavy eyelids
She covers the tears
That well up in the endless skies.
Peace of sorrow and sadness
With its consoling touch
Caresses the tired head
Of the tired earth.
At this auspicious moment
In this evening light
In a peaceful mind
Join your self
With the endless.
Lay at its feet
A few drops of your tears
Your past memories
As offerings.
All your cravings becalmed
May a deep peace prevail!
Behold, on the banks of the little stream
The village is half asleep
The birds have returned to their nests
And the children do not play
The meadows are lonely
In the courtyard
Returned home
Two or three tired cows are tied
As in a picture
All of them are still
Finishing her daylong household chores
Leaning on a fence
A village wife keeps on gazing in her front
What does she think in this dim light
Who knows!
Mother earth in a pensive mood as this
After her daily work
Leaning on the fence of the day's end
Is gazing at the horizon
In front of her
In the endless skies
An endless stream of light glides
In the darkness
In the distant corner of the skies
The evening stars
Like the lamps of far-flung villages
Appear one by one.
In her melancholy eyes
Seems to faintly float
The memories of her past -
The age-old history
Of her millions of children's lives.
She seems to remember her birth
In a nebulous halo
And her flaming youth
Now in a soothing greenery
In a well-provisioned home
In her role of a mother
She embraces so many lives in her breast
Their sorrows
Their trials and tribulations
Their strife and deaths -
And all these have no end!
As darkness deepens and silence becomes deeper
This vast family becomes unconscious in sleep
From the pining heart of the lonely earth
A question seems to rise to the emptiness above -
'Where, O where? How far?'
Compare this poem with the following poem on the same theme by the famous German poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) -
Evening
The sky puts on the darkening blue coat held for it by a row of ancient trees; you watch: and the lands grow distant in your sight, one journeying to heaven, one that falls;
and leave you, not at home in either one, not quite so still and dark as the darkened houses, not calling to eternity with the passion of what becomes a star each night, and rises;
and leave you (inexpressibly to unravel) your life, with its immensity and fear, so that, now bounded, now immeasurable, it is alternately stone in you and star.
