Extracts from Fireflies by Rabindranath Tagore
My Dear Ones, close your eyes and visualize. Enjoy the moment. You can take a single line also. Rabindranath Tagore was a very famous poet; musician and he wrote the Indian national anthem. He was awarded the Nobel prize for Literature. He is also called Gurudev.
Fireflies signify the anticipated change of seasons and are the symbols of love. The firefly has a short lifespan. It lights up the dark night and it is a reminder to us to appreciate the beauty of life while living it with love and empathy.
My fancies are fireflies,
Specks of living light
Twinkling in the dark.
The voice of wayside pansies,
That do not attract the careless glance,
Murmurs in these desultory lines.In the drowsy dark caves of the mind
Dreams build their nest with fragments
Dropped from the day’s caravan.
Spring scatters the petals of flowers
That are not for the fruits of the future,
But for the moment’s whim.Joy freed from the bond of earth’s slumber
Rushes into numberless leaves
And dances in the air for a day.God seeks comrades and claims love,
The devil seeks slave and claims obedience.
The soil in return for her service
Keeps the tree tied to her
The sky asks nothing and leaves it free.The breeze whispers to the lotus,
‘What is thy secret?”
‘It is myself,’ says the lotus,
‘Steal it and I disappear!’
Fireflies remind us that it is the small, simple things in life that are important. How did you feel when you saw your first firefly? Did you want to catch it and keep it in a bottle? Does it bring back memories of a summer evening and fairy tales?
Aim Hrim Klim