Daily Dose

From Selected Poems Of Rabindranath Tagore, edited by William Radice

THE FIRST JASMINE

Ah, these jasmines, these white jasmines!
   I seem to remember the first day when I filled my hands with
these jasmines, these white jasmines.
   I have loved the sunlight, the sky and the green earth;
   I have heard the liquid murmur of the river thorough the
darkness of midnight;
   Autumn sunsets have come to me at the bend of a road in the
lonely waste, like a bride raising her veil to accept her lover.
   Yet my memory is still sweet with the first white jasmines
that I held in my hands when I was a child.
   Many a glad day has come in my life, and I have laughed with
merrymakers on festival nights.
   On grey mornings of rain I have crooned many an idle song.
   I have worn round my neck the evening wreath of bakulas woven
by the hand of love.
   Yet my heart is sweet with the memory of the first fresh
jasmines that filled my hands when I was a child.