The First Jasmines

The First Jasmines

AH, these jasmines, these white jasmines!I seem to remember the first day when I filled my handswith these jasmines, these white jasmines.

I have loved the sunlight, the sky and the green earth;I have heard the liquid murmur of the riverthrough the darkness of midnight;Autumn sunsets have come to me at the bend of the roadin the lonely waste, like a bride raising her veilto accept her lover.Yet my memory is still sweet with the first white jasminesthat 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.

Tagore in 'The Crescent Moon'

Rabíndranáth Thákhur, Tagore, nasceu em Calcutá, a 6 de maio de 1861 e morreu em Calcutá a 7 de agosto de 1941