Maya

Rabindranath Tagore 1861 (Kolkata) – 1941 (Kolkata)



That I should make much of myself and turn it on all sides,
thus casting colored shadows on thy radiance
---such is thy Maya.

Thou settest a barrier in thine own being
and then callest thy severed self in myriad notes.
This thy self-separation has taken body in me.

The poignant song is echoed through all the sky in many-coloued tears
and smiles, alarms and hopes; waves rise up and sink again,
dreams break and form.
In me is thy own defeat of self.

This screen that thou hast raised is painted with innumerable figures
with the brush of the night and the day.
Behind it thy seat is woven in wondrous mysteries of curves,
casting away all barren lines of straightness.

The great pageant of thee and me has overspread the sky.
With the tune of thee and me all the air is vibrant,
and all ages pass with the hiding and seeking of thee and me.
 

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

48 sec read
173

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXX XXB XXXX XXXA XXB
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 851
Words 160
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 3, 3, 4, 4, 3

Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore FRAS was an Indian polymath—poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He reshaped Bengali literature and music as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. more…

All Rabindranath Tagore poems | Rabindranath Tagore Books

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