Pearls from Tagore's Stray Birds

Stray Birds

by Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)

3. The world puts off its mask of vastness to its lover. It becomes small as one song, as one kiss of the eternal.

9. Once we dreamt that we were strangers. We wake up to find that we were dear to each other.

13. Listen, my heart, to the whispers of the world with which it makes love to you.

18. What you are you do not see, what you see is your shadow.

28. O Beauty, find thyself in love, not in the flattery of thy mirror.

33. Life finds its wealth by the claims of the world, and its worth by the claims of love.

35. The bird wishes it were a cloud. The cloud wishes it were a bird.

48. The stars are not afraid to appear like fireflies.

51. Your idol is shattered in the dust to prove that God's dust is greater than your idol.

57. We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility.

59. Never be afraid of the moments — thus sings the voice of the everlasting.

70. Where is the fountain that throws up these flowers in a ceaseless outbreak of ecstasy?

75. We read the world wrong and say that it deceives us.

77. Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man.

82. Let life be beautiful like summer flowers and death like autumn leaves.

88. He who wants to do good knocks at the gate; he who loves finds the gate open.

86. “How far are you from me, O Fruit?” “I am hidden in your heart, O Flower.”

90. In darkness the One appears as uniform; in the light the One appears as manifold.

93. Power said to the world, “You are mine.” The world kept it prisoner on her throne.
Love said to the world, “I am thine.” The world gave it the freedom of her house.

95. Be still, my heart, these great trees are prayers.

96. The noise of the moment scoffs at the music of the Eternal.

107. The echo mocks her origin to prove she is the original.

110. Man goes into the noisy crowd to drown his own clamour of silence.

133. The leaf becomes flower when it loves. The flower becomes fruit when it worships.

151. God's great power is in the gentle breeze, not in the storm.

158. Power takes as ingratitude the writhings of its victims.

170. I have dipped the vessel of my heart into this silent hour; it has filled with love.

184. He who is too busy doing good finds no time to be good.

190. Sit still my heart, do not raise your dust. Let the world find its way to you.

203. The day, with the noise of this little earth, drowns the silence of all worlds.

209. Maiden, your simplicity, like the blueness of the lake, reveals your depth of truth.

235. Do not say, “It is morning,” and dismiss it with a name of yesterday.
See it for the first time as a new-born child that has no name.

247. “How may I sing to thee and worship, O Sun?” asked the little flower.
“By the simple silence of thy purity,” answered the sun.

248. Man is worse than an animal when he is an animal.

254. The real with its meaning read wrong and emphasis misplaced is the unreal.

258. The false can never grow into truth by growing in power.

282. I shall die again and again to know that life is inexhaustible.

285. They light their own lamps and sing their own words in their temples.
But the birds sing thy name in thine own morning light, — for thy name is joy.

286. Lead me in the centre of thy silence to fill my heart with songs.

287. Let them live who choose in their own hissing world of fireworks. 
My heart longs for thy stars, my God.

291. Some day I shall sing to thee in the sunrise of some other world,
“I have seen thee before in the light of the earth, in the love of man.”

295. Truth seems to come with its final word; and the final word gives birth to its next.

296. Blessed is he whose fame does not outshine his truth.

303. God kisses the finite in his love and man the infinite.

313. We shall know some day that death can never rob us of that which our soul has gained,
for her gains are one with herself.

315. When all the strings of my life will be tuned, my Master,
then at every touch of thine will come out the music of love.

326. Let this be my last word, that I trust in thy love.

Translated from Bengali to English by the author

Published in 1916