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I know that the day will come when my sight of this earth shall be lost, and life will take its leave in silence, drawing the last curtain over my eyes.
Yet stars will watch at night, and morning rise as before, and hours heave like sea waves casting up pleasures and pains.
When I think of this end of my moments, the barrier of the moments breaks and I see by the light of death thy world with its careless treasures. Rare is its lowliest seat, rare is its meanest of lives.
Things that I longed for in vain and things that I got - let them pass. Let me but truly
possess the things that I ever spurned and overlooked.
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| Gitanjali Poem no. 92 |
Summary
This lyric of Tagore speaks of after-life. He contemplates that the day will come when the curtain of his life would be drawn over his eyes. The self will depart from the world but the stars will remain, the morning will come as usual and the hours will pass away. Nearness to Death changed the poet's sense of values. He realises that even the lowliest and the humblest have their own value and significance. When the poet thinks of the moments of his life, the wall of the moments breaks and by the light of Death he sees the God's world with its careless treasures. Now the poet realizes that he no longer cares for worldly wealth, to which he has attached so much importance. Now he should care for the spirituality which he always neglected in the earthly life.
Critical Analysis
The Death is like a sense of divine wisdom. Till the time it is far away from man he is busy in worldly pleasures but when it comes to him he feels that all these sensual pleasures on earth are useless and meanest. Now he understands the importance of the things which he always neglected amidst the pleasures of life. Those rare and mean things are noblest. The spirituality is the important aspect of life but when the summons come from flim the man has no time to love that he has neglected. The man should love these godly treasures of life when he has enough time. The treasure of divinity, devotion, spirituality and eternity are the noblest and this truth comes to man at the time of his death and it makes all other things meanest.
"When I think of this end of my moments, the barrier of the moments breaks I see by the light of death thy world with its careless treasures. Rare is its lowliest seat, rare is its meanest of lives."
Death is a source of enlightenment and illumination. It is the thought of certainty of death which enables man to place many-things in life in their proper perspective. Life creates a barrier in the way of our vision, but the thought of death breaks this barrier. Death provides a light by which one can see that this world is full of treasures which are kept unguarded. The most ordinary life then begins to look unique, and the humblest seat begins to appear exceptionally attractive. Things which one has either overlooked or rejected before, then demand to be noticed and possessed.
Annotations
Last curtain: the death. Heave: rise and fall. Casting: throwing. Barrier of moment: The hindrance of mortality. Lowliest: meanest; most ordinary. Spurned: neglected, ignored, rejected in contempt. Overlooked : ignored.