Religion
Song XXXVI: O friend, awake, and sleep no more!
Translated by Rabindranath Tagore, with Evelyn Underhill (1915) · From Songs of Kabir (1915)
O friend, awake, and sleep no more!
The night is over and gone, would you lose your day also?
Others, who have wakened, have received jewels;
O foolish woman! you have lost all whilst you slept.
Your lover is wise, and you are foolish, O woman!
You never prepared the bed of your husband:
O mad one! you passed your time in silly play.
Your youth was passed in vain, for you did not know your Lord;
Wake, wake! See! your bed is empty: He left you in the night.
Kabîr says: "Only she wakes, whose heart is pierced with the arrow of His music."
Cite this poem
MLA
Kabir. “Song XXXVI: O friend, awake, and sleep no more!” Translated by Rabindranath Tagore, with Evelyn Underhill. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/kabir/35/.
Chicago
Kabir. “Song XXXVI: O friend, awake, and sleep no more!” Translated by Rabindranath Tagore, with Evelyn Underhill. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/kabir/35/.
Read this poem with the Codex →
More by Kabir
- Song XVII: The light of the sun, the moon, and the stars shines bright:
- Song XL: He is dear to me indeed who can call back the wanderer to his home
- Song LIX: O man, if thou dost not know thine own Lord
- Song LXXVIII: Kabîr says: "O Sadhu! hear my deathless words
- Song XCVIII: The month of March draws near: ah, who will unite me to my Lover?