excerpts from rabindranath tagore's "gitanjali"
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57
Take me this time, Lord.
Make me all Your own.
Don't move off empty-handed.
Take this heart by force.
I want no more
the days I spent without You.
Cast them into the dust.
From now on
let me spend my days
always awake and alert in Your light.
O by what strange impulses
and by what odd calls
I've wandered here and there,
on marked out paths, in barren places.
This time take me to Your heart.
Set Your face before me.
Speak Your own words to me.
O how many stains and how much deceit
still remain
in the secret recesses of my mind!
Don't leave me because of them.
Consume them all by fire!
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98
I'll turn my face
and keep it fixed on You.
Make this wish come true
in my life.
Just to remain before You,
just to keep my mind raised to You
in all pain, in all desires,
in the midst of every day.
My desired flit about
in many directions.
Just make this one desire
come true.
Night after night make this single wish
awaken in me a single pain,
making one day after another
form a garland on a single string,
in a single song of joy.
---
150
I can no longer endure
this conflict with You.
Day by day
my debt keeps mounting.
All have come before You in assembly garb,
bringing their gifts and returning,
while I keep wandering and hiding
in my soiled clothes--
I am terribly ashamed and humbled.
And what shall I say
of agony of mind?
My mind has become speechless:
it speaks no more to You.
O do not give it back to me
in this sad state.
Cast it
where shame and insults are heaped.
Then let me remain at your feet
forever Yours,
forever grateful. (
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