Lallji My Desire

“This is no time for saying ‘no'”

Were thy last words to me,

And yet my lips refused the kiss

They might have given thee.

How could I know

That thou wouldst go

To sleep so far from me?

They took thee to the Burning-Ghat,

Oh, Lallji, my desire,

And now a faint and lonely flame

Uprises from the pyre.

The thin grey smoke in spirals drifts

Across the opal sky.

Would that I were a wife of thine,

And thus with thee could die!

How could I know

That thou wouldst go,

Oh, Lallji, my desire?

The lips I missed

The flames have kissed

Upon the Sandal pyre.

If one should meet me with a knife

And cut my heart in twain,

Then would he see the smoke arise

From every severed vein.

Such is the burning, inward fire,

The anguish of my pain,

For my Beloved, whose dying lips

Implored a kiss–in vain!

How could I know

That thou wouldst go,

Oh, Lallji, my desire?

Too young thou art

To lay thy heart

Upon the Sandal pyre.

Thy wife awaits her coming child;

What were a child to me,

If I might take thee in these arms

And face the flames with thee?

The priests are chanting round the pyre,

At dusk they will depart

And leave to thee thy lonely rest,

To me my lonelier heart.

How could I know

Thou lovedst me so?

Upon the Sandal pyre

He lies forsaken.

The flames have taken

My Lallji, my desire!

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Poems in English 

• The Gardener XIX: You Walked by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener XIV: I Was Walking by the Road by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener XIII: I Asked Nothing by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener X: Let Your Work Be, Bride by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener LXXXIV: Over the Green by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener LXXXIII: She Dwelt on the Hillside by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener LXXXI: Why Do You Whisper So Faintly by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener LXXVI: The Fair Was On by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener LXXV: At Midnight by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener LXVIII: None Lives For Ever, Brother by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener LXIX: I Hunt for the Golden Stag by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener LXIV: I Spent My Day by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener LV: It Was Mid-Day by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener LIX: O Woman by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener LI: Then Finish the Last Song by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener IX: When I Go Alone at Night by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener IV: Ah Me by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Further Bank by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Flower-School by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The First Jasmines by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore

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