'COME AND HIRE me,' I cried, while in the morning I was walking on the stone-paved road.
Sword in hand, the King came in his chariot.
He held my hand and said, I will hire you with my power.'
But his power counted for nought, and he went away in his chariot.
In the heat of the midday the houses stood with shut doors.
I wandered along the crooked lane.
An old man came out with his bag of gold.
He pondered and said, I will hire you with my money.'
He weighed his coins one by one, but I turned away.
It was evening. The garden hedge was all aflower.
The fair maid came out and said, I will hire you with a smile.'
Her smile paled and melted into tears, and she went back alone into the dark.
The sun glistened on the sand, and the sea waves broke waywardly.
A child sat playing with shells.
He raised his head and seemed to know me, and said, I hire you with nothing.'
From thenceforward that bargain struck in child's play made me a free man.

IF THE RAGGED villager, trudging home from the market, could suddenly be lifted to the crest of a distant age, men would stop in their work and shout and run to him in delight.
        For they would no longer whittle down the man into the peasant, but find him full of the mystery and spirit of his age.
        Even his poverty and pain would grow great, released from the shallow insult of the present, and the paltry things in his basket would acquire pathetic dignity.

     প্রাইমারি ইস্কুলে
     প্রায়-মারা পণ্ডিত
সব কাজ ফেলে রেখে
     ছেলে করে দণ্ডিত।
নাকে খত দিয়ে দিয়ে
     ক্ষয়ে গেল যত নাক,
কথা-শোনবার পথ
       টেনে টেনে করে ফাঁক;
ক্লাসে যত কান ছিল
       সব হল খণ্ডিত,
  বেঞ্চিটেঞ্চিগুলো
       লণ্ডিত ভণ্ডিত।