I

By this he knew she wept with waking eyes:
That, at his hand's light quiver by her head,
The strange low sobs that shook their common bed
Were called into her with a sharp surprise,
And strangled mute, like little gaping snakes,
Dreadfully venomous to him. She lay
Stone-still, and the long darkness flowed away
With muffled pulses. Then, as midnight makes
Her giant heart of Memory and Tears
Drink the pale drug of silence, and so beat
Sleep's heavy measure, they from head to feet
Were moveless, looking through their dead black years,

Love met a worldling on the way,
And softly crept into his breast.
Straight Self and Greed refused to stay
Where Love had dared to make his nest.

Love met a mourner on the road,
And said: 'I'll bear thee company.'
Full soon the mourner lost his load
Of grief, and care, and misery.

Into a grim and cheerless home
Love forced his way through barriers tall;
Fled wretchedness, and chill, and gloom-
The golden sunshine flooded all.

Under Mirabeau Bridge the river slips away
And lovers
Must I be reminded
Joy came always after pain

The night is a clock chiming
The days go by not I

We're face to face and hand in hand
While under the bridges
Of embrace expire
Eternal tired tidal eyes

The night is a clock chiming
The days go by not I

Love elapses like the river
Love goes by
Poor life is indolent
And expectation always violent

The night is a clock chiming
The days go by not I

The earth looked at Him and began to dance.
Mira knows why, for her soul too
is in love.

If you cannot picture God
in a way that always
strengthens
you,

You need to read
more of my
poems

[Translated by Daniel Ladinsky]

Your morning cried
made me want to die
I like to die with the water hen
with the turtle the porpoises
the fish; even the porcupines
I like to die with the kangaroo emu snakes and opossums
I like to dead with the goanna birds and seagulls butterfish
even pelicans koalas; eaglehawks
I like to dead with all natures brothers and sisters
I love to die with my body in the boughs up high in a tree
I love to die without any black white singing speaking or being at my funeral

Mine is the lifter of mountains, the

cowherd, and none other.

O sadhus! there is no other--I have seen

the whole world.

I left brothers, I left kindred, I left

all I had.

Sitting near the sadhus, I lost worldly shame.

I looked at the devotees and I was one with

them; I looked at the world and wept.

With tears I watered love’s creeper

and it took root.

I churned the milk, drew out the ghee

and threw away the whey.

Rana sent a cup of poison; I drank it

Mine Is Gopal
Mine is Gopal, the Mountain-Holder; there is no one else.
On his head he wears the peacock-crown: He alone is my husband.
Father, mother, brother, relative: I have none to call my own.
I've forsaken both God, and the family's honor: what should I do?
I've sat near the holy ones, and I've lost shame before the people.
I've torn my scarf into shreds; I'm all wrapped up in a blanket.
I took off my finery of pearls and coral, and strung a garland of wildwood flowers.
With my tears, I watered the creeper of love that I planted;

Mind has been burnt in love,
the branches of shimul* tree covered with flowers;
I sense the advent of spring that had appeared
in the age of ice.

* silk-cotton

How bright and brave they look, shouldering five-foot rifles
On the parade ground lit up by the first gleams of day.
China's daughters have high-aspiring minds,
They love their battle array, not silks and satins.

What shall I your true-love tell,
Earth-forsaking maid?
What shall I your true-love tell,
When life's spectre's laid?

'Tell him that, our side the grave,
Maid may not conceive
Life should be so sad to have,
That's so sad to leave!'

What shall I your true-love tell,
When I come to him?
What shall I your true-love tell--
Eyes growing dim!

'Tell him this, when you shall part
From a maiden pined;
That I see him with my heart,
Now my eyes are blind.'

What shall I your true-love tell?