MY KING WAS unknown to me, therefore when he claimed his tribute I was bold to think I would hide myself leaving my debts unpaid.
I fled and fled behind my day's work and my night's dreams.
But his claims followed me at every breath I drew.
Thus I came to know that I am known to him and no place left which is mine.
Now I wish to lay my all before his feet, and gain the right to my place in his kingdom.

O YOU shaggy-headed banyan tree standing on the bank of the pond, have you forgotten the little child, like the birds that have nested in your branches and left you?
Do you not remember how he sat at the window and wondered at the tangle of your roots that plunged underground?
The women would come to fill their jars in the pond, and your huge black shadow would wriggle on the water like sleep struggling to wake up.
Sunlight danced on the ripples like restless tiny shuttles weaving golden tapestry.
Two ducks swam by the weedy margin above their shadows, and the child would sit still and think.
He longed to be the wind and blow through your rustling branches, to be your shadow and lengthen with the day on the water, to be a bird and perch on your top-most twig, and to float like those ducks among the weeds and shadows.

সংসার যবে মন কেড়ে লয়,
          জাগে না যখন প্রাণ,
তখনো, হে নাথ, প্রণমি তোমায়
          গাহি বসে তব গান।
                 অন্তরযামী, ক্ষমো সে আমার
                 শূন্যমনের বৃথা উপহার
                 পুষ্পবিহীন পূজা-আয়োজন
                        ভক্তিবিহীন তান--
সংসার যবে মন কেড়ে লয়,
                 জাগে না যখন প্রাণ।
ডাকি তব নাম শুষ্ক কণ্ঠে,
          আশা করি প্রাণপণে
নিবিড় প্রেমের সরস বরষা
          যদি নেমে আসে মনে।
                 সহসা একদা আপনা হইতে
                 ভরি দিবে তুমি তোমার অমৃতে
                 এই ভরসায় করি পদতলে
                        শূন্য হৃদয় দান--
সংসার যবে মন কেড়ে লয়,
                 জাগে না যখন প্রাণ।