استَيْقَظْتُ فَوَجَدْتُ رِسَالَتِه تَأْتِيني مَع الصَّبَاحِ لا أَدْرِي مَا تَقُولُ الرِّسالةُ لأَنِّي لاَ أَعْرِفُ القرَاءَةَ سَأَدَعُ العَالِم الحَكِيم مُنْصَرِفاً إِلى كُتُبِهِ وَلَسْتُ أَرْغَب في مُضَايَقَتِهِ مَنْ يَدْرِي إِذ… - Rabindranath Tagore

When I bring to you coloured toys, my child, I understand why there is such a play of colours on clouds, on water, and why flowers are painted in tints — -when I give coloured toys to you, my child.

When I sing to make you dance I truly now why there is music in leaves, and why waves send their chorus of voices to the heart of the listening earth — -when I sing to make you dance.

When I bring sweet things to your greedy hands I know why there is honey in the cup of the flowers and why fruits are secretly filled with sweet juice — -when I bring sweet things to your greedy hands.

When I kiss your face to make you smile, my darling, I surely understand what pleasure streams from the sky in morning light, and what delight that is that is which the summer breeze brings to my body — -when I kiss you to make you smile.

The fish in the water is silent, the animals on the earth is noisy, the bird in the air is singing. But man has in him the silence of the sea, the noise of the earth and the music of the air.

The song I came to sing
remains unsung to this day.
I have spent my days in stringing
and in unstringing my instrument.

The time has not come true,
the words have not been rightly set;
only there is the agony
of wishing in my heart . . .