Rabindaranath Tagores Poems III by Viswadeep Das - HTML preview

98. Realisation

On the bank of the Rupa-narayana33

I woke up,

I knew that this world

Is not a dream.

I read my own name

In letters of blood,

I recognised myself

Blow after blow,

With pain after pain;

Truth is stern,

33 A river with a significant name : Rupa ("Form" or "Beauty") + Narayana (another name of Vishnu, the Lord of Love)

I loved the stern

Which never deceives.

This life until death

is an ascetic quest of sorrow,

To earn the terrible price of Truth

Pay off all debt while dying.

[ shesh lekha, "Last Writing", No.11, 1941]