Beyond Land and Time

Rabindranath

(Rôbindrônāth)

Translated by Golam Mustafa

Today in this earth there are many who contemplate.

But are not many more at this untimely juncture of centuries,

Who eagerly carry corpses of the sinner and the afflicted

To be immortal by removing sands of seas and the gloom of

hells?

Somewhere in the meadows and paths, inside flowers, birds

and pasture

Time without deceiving itself may be running the universe;

Like the knight’s move in chess, the throbbing rhythm of blood

After a turn or two there, has steadied itself.

Suddenly the diurnal rotation turns tumult over the mammoth

and men.

The poet, also like an intimate person, a very dear one—

Long ago Fah-iene once saw golden rays in the gloomy desert—

The more memorable in clear context.