Beyond Land and Time

Ravindranath

(Rôbindrônāth)

Translated by Clinton B. Seely

“There shines a light in the heart of man,

And that is why everyday honeyed sun and stars . . .”

Some sort of words like this were heard a while ago.

Today that speaker seems

So far away.

Because our present history

Is held in winter’s chill

They think Shiva’s primal sounds of beauty, of creation

Have fused into that final dissolution.

Yet worth returns

To shores of newer times, like universal truth,

By effort, hope, and the consciousness of man.