Fruit-gathering LV

Fruit-gathering LV

Original Text
Sir Rabindranath Tagore, Fruit-gathering (London: Macmillan, 1916): 75-76. PR 6039 A2F7 Robarts Library
1Tulsidas, the poet, was wandering, deep in thought, by the Ganges, in that lonely spot where they burn their dead.
2He found a woman sitting at the feet of the corpse of her dead husband, gaily dressed as for a wedding.
3She rose as she saw him, bowed to him, and said, "Permit me, Master, with your blessing, to follow my husband to heaven."
4"Why such hurry, my daughter?" asked Tulsidas. "Is not this earth also His who made heaven?"
5"For heaven I do not long," said the woman. "I want my husband."
6Tulsidas smiled and said to her, "Go back to your home, my child. Before the month is over you will find your husband."
7The woman went back with glad hope. Tulsidas came to her every day and gave her high thoughts to think, till her heart was filled to the brim with divine love.
8When the month was scarcely over, her neighbours came to her, asking, "Woman, have you found your husband?"
9The widow smiled and said, "I have."
10Eagerly they asked, "Where is he?"
11"In my heart is my lord, one with me," said the woman.

Notes

1] Tulsidas: ascetic Indian poet (1487-1623) who wrote Ramacharita manasa, one of the greatest of medieval Hindi works, devoted to the life of the divine Sri Rama.Ganges: the holy river that flows from the Himalayas and empties into the Bay of Bengal. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1916
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2002
Rhyme
unrhyming