How much do I know about this immense earth ?
The host of cities and capitals from land to land,
Glorious deeds of men, rivers, mountains, seas and deserts,
Unknown animals, ever new trees,
All that I ignore. Out of the pageant of this vast universe
My mind remains satiated with a corner too mean.
Out of that regret and with imperishable zeal
I devour travelogues, I keep collecting
Whatever picturesque description I find.
I compensate the paucity of knowledge in my mind
With all treasure I receive as alms.
[ janmadine, "On my Birthday", No. 10, fragment 1941]
28 a raga celebrating the season of spring : the heptatonic scale utilises the altered degrees Db, F# and Ab 92. Kalimpong
In the blue of the hills and the blue of the horizon
A mystic hymn with rhyme and rhythm
is being composed in the void and upon the earth.
The gold of the autumn sun bathes the forest.
Violet bees seek honey in the yellow of the flower-bunch.
I am at the centre, therefore
The sky from four sides keeps clapping silently.
Flooded by my joy, today, mingle colours with song,
Does it at all know Kalimpong ?29
The mountain summit has been storing
Endless ages after ages.
One of my days could deck it with a wedding garland :
Desirous to intimate this
In the far and farther firmament of the morning
With unstruck30 vibrations
The golden bell goes on ringing ding dong,
Can it be heard by Kalimpong ?
[ janmadine, "On my Birthday", No. 14, 1941]
29 Ville principale de colline appartenant à Darjeeling, en Bengale-occidental 30 anaahata, the philisophical conception of Sound