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On one side of my garden path
On the branches of the kamini
Like draperies of dewdrops
The spiders have hung their webs
On the other side strewn with grains of red earth
The ants have built their nests.
Day and night I pass by them
And I see the sheuli is full of buds
And the tagar is full of flowers.
In the universe the human world
Is not so small as it seems.
So are the worlds of insects.
We hardly notice them
Yet among the creation they occupy a central place.
Problems and needs they have many
How to meet them through ages
Much also they have thought
Their history is long.
Day and night goes on
This struggle of indomitable life
I pass through them
But I do not hear the murmur
Of the ever-flowing stream of their lives –
How they survive, when they are born or die.
To complete my song
I hum its one half in quest of its remaining half
In the worlds of these spiders, these ants
This quest has no meaning
But do they hum a tune or sing a song
When they touch each other
When they smell something sweet
Or when they don’t find words
To express some inexpressible pain?
I am a human being
I know I have access to everything
In my journeys to distant planets and stars
One by one all barriers disappear.
But by the side of my neighbouring world
Turbulent with my joys and sorrows
The worlds of those spiders and ants
Behind a curtain
Remain forever closed to me.
Everyday I pass by their small yet limitless world
And I see the sheuli is full of buds
And the tagar is full of flowers.
Translation of the poem Kiter samsar from the collection Punascha (Once More) by Rabindranath Tagore.
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