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Monday 30 September 2013






HE WHO CAN OPEN THE BUD DOES IT SO SIMPLY

No: it is not yours to open buds into blossoms.
Shake the bud, strike it; it is beyond your power to make it blossom.
Your touch soils it, you tear its petals to pieces and strew them in the dust.
But no colors appear, and no perfume.
Ah! it is not for you to open the bud into a blossom.
He who can open the bud does it so simply.
He gives it a glance, and the life-sap stirs through its veins.
At his breath the flower spreads its wings and flutters in the wind.
Colors flush out like heart-longings, the perfume betrays a sweet secret.
He who can open the bud does it so simply.

- Rabindranath Tagore, 'Fruit Gathering'

3 comments:

  1. The innocence of the Divine guidance...

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    Replies
    1. ..and also the perfection, Tagore again -

      Endless Time

      Time is endless in thy hands, my lord.
      There is none to count thy minutes.

      Days and nights pass and ages bloom and fade like flowers.
      Thou knowest how to wait.

      Thy centuries follow each other perfecting a small wild flower.

      We have no time to lose,
      and having no time we must scramble for a chance.
      We are too poor to be late.

      And thus it is that time goes by
      while I give it to every querulous man who claims it,
      and thine altar is empty of all offerings to the last.

      At the end of the day I hasten in fear lest thy gate be shut;
      but I find that yet there is time.

      Rabindranath Tagore

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