Religion

Fruit-Gathering 28: Time after time I came to your gate

by Rabindranath Tagore 1861–1941

Translated by Rabindranath Tagore (1916) · From Fruit-Gathering (1916)

Religion

Time after time I came to your gate with raised hands, asking for more and yet more.

You gave and gave, now in slow measure, now in sudden excess.

I took some, and some things I let drop; some lay heavy on my hands; some I made into playthings and broke them when tired; till the wrecks and the hoard of your gifts grew immense, hiding you, and the ceaseless expectation wore my heart out.

Take, oh take—has now become my cry.

Shatter all from this beggar's bowl: put out this lamp of the importunate watcher: hold my hands, raise me from the still-gathering heap of your gifts into the bare infinity of your uncrowded presence.

This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.

MLA

Tagore, Rabindranath. “Fruit-Gathering 28: Time after time I came to your gate.” Translated by Rabindranath Tagore. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/tagore/541/.

Chicago

Tagore, Rabindranath. “Fruit-Gathering 28: Time after time I came to your gate.” Translated by Rabindranath Tagore. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/tagore/541/.

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