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Crescent Moon-Rabindranath Tagore · Eve's Diary

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Speaker 1: Chapter one of the Crescent Moon. This is a LibriVox recording.
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Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
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Speaker 1: by Anusha a Year the Crescent Moon by Rabindranath Tago
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Speaker 1: poems one to five the home. I paced alone on
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Speaker 1: the road across the fields, while the sunset was hiding
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Speaker 1: its last gold like a miser. The daylight sank deeper
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Speaker 1: and deeper into the darkness, and the widowed land whose
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Speaker 1: harvest had been reaped lay silent. Suddenly, a boy's shrill
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Speaker 1: voice rose into the sky. He traversed the dark unscene,
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Speaker 1: leaving the track of his song across the hush of
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Speaker 1: the evening. His village home lay there the end of
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Speaker 1: the wasteland, beyond the sugar cane field, hidden among the
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Speaker 1: shadows of the banana and the slender arika palm, the
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Speaker 1: cocoa nut, and the dark green jackfruit trees. I stopped
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Speaker 1: for a moment in my lonely way under the starlight,
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Speaker 1: and saw spread before me the darkened earth, surrounding with
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Speaker 1: her arms countless homes furnished with cradles and beds, mothers, hearts,
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Speaker 1: and evening lambs and young lives, glad with the gladness
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Speaker 1: that knows nothing of its value for the world. On
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Speaker 1: the sea shore, on the seashore of endless worlds, children meet.
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Speaker 1: The infinite sky is motionless overhead, and the restless water
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Speaker 1: is boisterous. On the seashore of endless words, the children
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Speaker 1: meet with shouts and dances. They build their houses with sand,
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Speaker 1: and they play with empty shells with withered leaves. They
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Speaker 1: weave their boats and smilingly float them on the vast deep.
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Speaker 1: Children have their play on the sea shore of whirls.
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Speaker 1: They know not how to swim, They know not how
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Speaker 1: to cast nets. Pearl fishers dive for pearls. Merchants sail
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Speaker 1: in their ships, while children gather pebbles and scatter them again.
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Speaker 1: They seek not for hidden treasures. They know not how
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Speaker 1: to cast nets. The sea surges up with laughter and
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Speaker 1: pale gleams, the smile of the sea beach, death dealing waves,
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Speaker 1: sing meaningless ballads to the children, even like a mother
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Speaker 1: while rocking her baby's cradle. The sea plays with children
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Speaker 1: and pale gleams the smile of the sea beach. On
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Speaker 1: the sea shore, of endless worlds, children meet tempest roams
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Speaker 1: in the partless sky, are wrecked in the trackless water.
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Speaker 1: Death is abroad, and children play on the sea. Shore
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Speaker 1: of endless worlds is the great meeting of children. The
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Speaker 1: source the sleep that flits on baby's eyes. Does anybody
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Speaker 1: know from where it comes? Yes, there is a rumor
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Speaker 1: that it has its dwelling way in the fairy village,
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Speaker 1: among shadows of the forest, dimly lit with glow worms,
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Speaker 1: there hang two shy buds of enchantment. From there it
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Speaker 1: comes to kiss baby's eyes. The smile that flickers on
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Speaker 1: baby's lips when he sleeps. Does anybody know where it
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Speaker 1: was born? Yes, there is a rumor that a young,
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Speaker 1: pale beam of a crescent moon touched the edge of
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Speaker 1: a vanishing autumn cloud, and there the smile was first born,
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Speaker 1: in the dream of a dew washed morning. The smile
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Speaker 1: that flickers on baby's lips when he sleeps, The sweet
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Speaker 1: soft freshness that blooms on baby's limbs. Does anybody know
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Speaker 1: where it was hidden? So long? Yes, When the mother
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Speaker 1: was a young girl, it lay pervading her heart in
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Speaker 1: tender and silent mystery or love. The sweet, soft freshness
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Speaker 1: that has bloomed on Baby's limbs, Baby's way. If Baby
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Speaker 1: only wanted to, he could fly up to Heaven this moment.
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Speaker 1: It is not for nothing that he does not leave us.
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Speaker 1: He loves to rest his head on Mother's bosom and
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Speaker 1: cannot ever bear to lose sight of her. Baby knows
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Speaker 1: all manner of wise words, though few on earth can
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Speaker 1: understand their meaning. It is not for nothing that he
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Speaker 1: never wants to speak. The one thing he wants is
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Speaker 1: to learn mother's words from mother's lips. That is why
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Speaker 1: he looks so innocent. Baby had a heap of gold
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Speaker 1: and pearls, yet he came like a beggar on to
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Speaker 1: this earth. It is not for nothing he came in
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Speaker 1: such a disguise. This dear little naked mendicant pretends to
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Speaker 1: be utterly helpless so that he may beg for Mother's
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Speaker 1: wealth of love. Baby was so free from every tie
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Speaker 1: in the land of the tiny crescent moon. It was
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Speaker 1: not for nothing he gave up his freedom. He knows
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Speaker 1: that there is room for endless joy in Mother's little
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Speaker 1: corner of her heart, and it is sweeter far than liberty,
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Speaker 1: to be caught and pressed in her dear arms baby
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Speaker 1: never knew how to cry. He dwelt in the land
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Speaker 1: of perfect bliss. It is not for nothing he has
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Speaker 1: chosen to shed tears. Though with the smile of his
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Speaker 1: dear face he draws mother's yearning heart to him. Yet
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Speaker 1: his little cries, O, where tiny troubles weave the double
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Speaker 1: bond of pity and love? The unheeded pageant? Ah, who
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Speaker 1: was it colored that little frock, my child? And covered
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Speaker 1: your sweet limbs with that little red tunic? You have
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Speaker 1: come out in the morning to play in the courtyard,
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Speaker 1: tottering and tumbling as you run? But who was it
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Speaker 1: colored that little frock, my child? What is it makes
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Speaker 1: you laugh? My little life? Bud? Mother smiles at you
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Speaker 1: standing on the threshold. She claps her hands and her
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Speaker 1: bracelets jingle, and you dance with your bamboo stick in
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Speaker 1: your hand like a tiny little shepherd. But what is
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Speaker 1: it makes you laugh? My little life, Bud? Oh beggar,
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Speaker 1: what do you beg for clinging to your mother's neck
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Speaker 1: with both your hands, Oh greedy heart? Shall I pluck
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Speaker 1: the world like a fruit from the sky to place
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Speaker 1: it on your little rosy palm? O, beggar, what are
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Speaker 1: you begging for The wind carries away in glee, the
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Speaker 1: tinkling of your anklet bells. The sun smiles and watches
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Speaker 1: your toilet. The sky watches over you when you sleep
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Speaker 1: in your mother's arms, And the morning comes tiptoe to
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Speaker 1: your bed and kisses your eyes. The wind carries away
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Speaker 1: in glee, the tinkling of your anklet bells. The fairy
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Speaker 1: mistress of dreams is coming towards you, flying through the
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Speaker 1: twilight sky. The world mother keeps her seat by you,
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Speaker 1: in your mother's heart. He who plays his music to
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Speaker 1: the stars is standing at your window with his flute.
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Speaker 1: And the fairy Mistress of dreams is coming towards you,
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Speaker 1: flying through the twilight sky. End of chapter one, Chapter
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Speaker 1: two of the Crescent Moon by rabindr Go. This LibriVox
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Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Poems six to ten
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Speaker 1: Sleep stealer, who stole sleep from baby's eyes? I must know.
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Speaker 1: Clasping her pitcher to her waist, mother went to fetch
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Speaker 1: water from the village near by. It was noon, The
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Speaker 1: children's playtime was over. The ducks in the pond were silent.
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Speaker 1: The shepherd boy lay asleep under the shadow of the
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Speaker 1: Banyan tree. The crane stood grave and still in the
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Speaker 1: swamp near the mango grove. In the meanwhile, the sleep
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Speaker 1: stealer came, and, snatching sleep from baby's eyes, flew away.
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Speaker 1: When mother came back, she found baby traveling the room
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Speaker 1: over on all fours. Who stole sleep from our baby's eyes?
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Speaker 1: I must know? I must find her and chain her up.
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Speaker 1: I must look into that dark cave, where, through boulders
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Speaker 1: and scowling stones trickles a tiny stream. I must search
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Speaker 1: in the drowsy shade of the barcla grove, where pigeons
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Speaker 1: cool in their corner, and fairies anklets tinkle in the
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Speaker 1: stillness of starry nights. In the evening, I will peep
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Speaker 1: into the whispering silence of the bamboo forest, where fireflies
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Speaker 1: squander their light, and will ask every creature I meet,
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Speaker 1: Can anybody tell me where the sleep stealer lives? Who
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Speaker 1: stole sleep from babies eyes? I must know? Shouldn't I
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Speaker 1: give her a good lesson? If I could only catch her,
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Speaker 1: I would raid her nest and see where she hoards
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Speaker 1: all her stolen sleep. I would plunder it all and
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Speaker 1: carry it home. I would bind her two wings securely
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Speaker 1: set her on the bank of the river, and then
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Speaker 1: let her play at fishing with a reed among the
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Speaker 1: rushes and water lilies. When the marketing is over in
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Speaker 1: the evening, and the village children sit in their mother's laps,
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Speaker 1: then the night birds will mockingly din her years with
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Speaker 1: whose sleep will you steal? Now the beginning? Where have
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Speaker 1: I come from? Where did you pick me up? The
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Speaker 1: baby asked its mother. She answered, half crying, half laughing,
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Speaker 1: and clasping the baby to her breast. You were hidden
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Speaker 1: in my heart as its desire, My darling, you were
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Speaker 1: in the dolls of my childhood's games. And when with
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Speaker 1: clay I made the image of my God, every morning
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Speaker 1: I made and unmade you. Then you were enshrined with
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Speaker 1: our household deity in his worship. I worshiped you in
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Speaker 1: all my hopes and my loves, in my life, in
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Speaker 1: the life of my mother. You have lived in the
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Speaker 1: lap of the deathless spirit who rules our home. You
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Speaker 1: have been nursed for ages. When in girlhood my heart
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Speaker 1: was opening its petals, you hovered as a fragrance about it.
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Speaker 1: Your tender softness bloomed in my youthful limbs like a
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Speaker 1: glow in the sky. Before the sun rise, Heaven's first
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Speaker 1: darling twin born with the morning light, you have floated
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Speaker 1: down the stream of the world's life, and at last
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Speaker 1: you have stranded on my heart. As I gaze on
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Speaker 1: your face, mystery overwhelms me. You, who belong to all,
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Speaker 1: have become mine. For fear of losing you, I hold
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Speaker 1: you tight to my breast. What magic has snared the
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Speaker 1: world's treasure in these slender arms of mine baby's world.
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Speaker 1: I wish I could take a quiet corner in the
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Speaker 1: heart of my baby's very own world. I know it
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Speaker 1: has stars that talked to him, and a sky that
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Speaker 1: stoops down to his face to amuse him with its
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Speaker 1: silly clouds and rain. Those who make believe to be
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Speaker 1: dumb and look as if they never could move, come
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Speaker 1: creeping to his window with their stories and with trays
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Speaker 1: crowded with bright toys. I wish I could travel by
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Speaker 1: the road that crosses babies mind and out beyond all bounds,
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Speaker 1: where messengers run errands for no cause, between the kingdoms
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Speaker 1: of kings of no history, where reason makes kites of
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Speaker 1: her laws and flies them, and truth sets fact free
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Speaker 1: from its fetters. When and why, when I bring you
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Speaker 1: colored toys, my child, I understand why there is such
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Speaker 1: a play of colors on clouds, on water, and why
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Speaker 1: flowers are painted in tints when I give colored toys
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Speaker 1: to you, my child. When I sing to make you dance,
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Speaker 1: I truly know why there is music in leaves, and
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Speaker 1: why waves send their chorus of voices to the heart
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Speaker 1: of the listening earth when I sing to make you dance.
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Speaker 1: When I bring sweet things to your greedy hands, I
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Speaker 1: know why there is honey in the cup of the flower,
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Speaker 1: and why fruits are secretly filled with sweet juice when
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Speaker 1: I bring sweet things to your greedy hands. When I
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Speaker 1: kiss your face to make you smile, my darling, I
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Speaker 1: surely understand what pleasure streams from the sky in morning light,
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Speaker 1: and what delight the summer breeze brings to my body
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Speaker 1: when I kiss you to make you smile. Defamation? Why
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Speaker 1: are those tears in your eyes, my child? How horrid
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Speaker 1: of them to be always scolding you for nothing? You
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Speaker 1: have stained your fingers and face with ink while writing.
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Speaker 1: Is that why they call you dirty? Oh fie? Would
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Speaker 1: they dare to call the full moon dirty because it
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Speaker 1: has smudged its face with ink? For every little trifle.
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Speaker 1: They blame you, my child. They are ready to find
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Speaker 1: fault for nothing. You tore your clothes while playing? Is
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Speaker 1: that why they call you untidy? Oh Fi? What would
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Speaker 1: they call an autumn morning that smiles through its ragged clouds.
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Speaker 1: Take no heed of what they say to you, my child.
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Speaker 1: Take no heed of what they say to you, my child.
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Speaker 1: They make a long list of your misdeeds. Everybody knows
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Speaker 1: how you love sweet things? Is that why they call you? Greedy?
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Speaker 1: Oh Fi? What then would they call us who love you?
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Speaker 1: End of chapter two, Chapter three of The Crescent Moon
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Speaker 1: by Rabindra Nath Tago. This Librivax recording is in the
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Speaker 1: public domain. Poems eleven to fifteen. The judge say of
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Speaker 1: him what you please. But I know my child's failings.
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Speaker 1: I do not love him because he is good, but
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Speaker 1: because he is my little child. How should you know
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Speaker 1: how dare he can be when you try to weigh
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Speaker 1: his merits against his faults. When I must punish him,
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Speaker 1: he becomes all the more a part of my being.
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Speaker 1: When I cause his tears to come, my heart weeps
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Speaker 1: with him. I alone have a right to blame and punish,
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Speaker 1: for he only may chastise who loves playthings. Child, How
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Speaker 1: happy you are sitting in the dust playing with a
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Speaker 1: broken twig all the morning. I smile at your play
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Speaker 1: with that little bit of a broken twig. I am
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Speaker 1: busy with my accounts, adding up figures by the hour.
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Speaker 1: Perhaps you glance at me and think, what a stupid
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Speaker 1: game to spoil your morning with, child, I have forgotten
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Speaker 1: the art of being absorbed in sticks and mud pies.
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Speaker 1: I seek out costly playthings and gather lumps of gold
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Speaker 1: and silver. With whatever you find, you create your glad games.
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Speaker 1: I spend both my time and my strength over things
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Speaker 1: I never can obtain. In my frail canoe, I struggle
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Speaker 1: to cross the sea of desire, and forget that I, too,
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Speaker 1: am playing a game the astronomer, I only said, when
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Speaker 1: in the evening the round full moon gets entangled among
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Speaker 1: the branches of that goddam tree, couldn't somebody catch it?
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Speaker 1: But Dada laughed at me and said, baby, you are
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Speaker 1: the silliest child I have ever known. The moon is
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Speaker 1: ever so far from us, How could anybody catch it?
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Speaker 1: I said, Dada, how foolish you are. When mother looks
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Speaker 1: out of her window and smiles down at us playing
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Speaker 1: would you call her far away? Still said you are
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Speaker 1: a stupid child. But baby, where could you find a
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Speaker 1: net big enough to catch the moon with? I said,
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Speaker 1: surely you could catch it with your hands. But Dada
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Speaker 1: laughed and said, you are the silliest child I have known.
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Speaker 1: If it came nearer, you would see how big the
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Speaker 1: moon is. I said, Tadau, what nonsense they teach at
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Speaker 1: your school. When mother bends her face down to kiss us,
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Speaker 1: does her face look very big? But still Dada says, Hugh,
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Speaker 1: are a stupid child. Clouds and waves. Mother. The folk
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Speaker 1: who live up in the clouds call out to me.
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Speaker 1: We play from the time we wake till the day ends.
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Speaker 1: We play with the golden dawn. We play with the
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Speaker 1: silver moon. I ask, but how am I to get
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Speaker 1: up to you? They answer, Come to the edge of
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Speaker 1: the earth, lift up your hands to the sky, and
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Speaker 1: you will be taken up into the cloud. My mother
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Speaker 1: is waiting for me at home. I say, how can
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Speaker 1: I leave her and come? Then they smile and float away.
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Speaker 1: But I know a nicer game than that. Mother. I
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Speaker 1: shall be the cloud and you the moon. I shall
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Speaker 1: cover you with both my hands, and our house top
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Speaker 1: will be the blue sky. The folk who live in
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Speaker 1: the waves call out to me. We sing from morning
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Speaker 1: till night, on and on we travel and know not
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Speaker 1: where we pass. I ask, But how am I to
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Speaker 1: join you? They tell me. Come to the edge of
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Speaker 1: the shore and stand with your eyes tight shut, and
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Speaker 1: you will be carried out upon the waves. I say,
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Speaker 1: my mother always wants me at home in the evening.
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Speaker 1: How can I leave her and go? Then they smile,
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Speaker 1: dance and pass by. But I know a better game
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Speaker 1: than that. I will be the waves, and you will
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Speaker 1: be a strange shore. I shall roll on and on
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Speaker 1: and on, and break upon your lap with laughter, and
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Speaker 1: no one in the world will know where we both are.
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Speaker 1: The chumper flower. Supposing I became a chumper flower just
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Speaker 1: for fun, and grew on a branch high up that tree,
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Speaker 1: and shook in the wind with laughter, and danced upon
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Speaker 1: the newly budded leaves. Would you know me? Mother? You
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Speaker 1: would call, baby, where are you? And I should laugh
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Speaker 1: to myself and keep quite quiet. I should slyly open
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Speaker 1: my petals and watch you at your work. When after
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Speaker 1: your bath, with wet hair spread on your shoulders, you
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Speaker 1: walked through the shadow of the chumpa tree to the
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Speaker 1: little court where you say your prayers. You would notice
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Speaker 1: the scent of the flower, but not know that it
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Speaker 1: came from me. When after the midday meal you sat
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Speaker 1: at the window reading Ramaiyon, and the the tree's shadow
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Speaker 1: fell over your hair and your lap. I should fling
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Speaker 1: my wee little shadow on to the page of your book,
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Speaker 1: just where you were reading. But would you guess that
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Speaker 1: it was the tiny shadow of your little child. When
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Speaker 1: in the evening you went to the cow shed with
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Speaker 1: the lighted lamp in your hand. I should suddenly drop
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Speaker 1: on to the earth again and be your own baby
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Speaker 1: once more, and beg you to tell me a story.
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Speaker 1: Where have you been, you naughty child? I won't tell you, mother,
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Speaker 1: That's what you and I would say then. End of
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Speaker 1: chapter three, chapter four of The Crescent Moon by Rabindranath Tagore.
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Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Poems sixteen
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Speaker 1: to twenty Fairyland. If people came to know where my
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Speaker 1: King's palace is, it would vanish into the air. The
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Speaker 1: walls are of white silver and the roof of shining gold.
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Speaker 1: The queen lives in a palace with seven courtyards, and
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Speaker 1: she wears a jewel that cost all the wealth of
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Speaker 1: seven kingdoms. But let me tell you, mother, in a whisper,
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Speaker 1: where my king's palace is. It is at the corner
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Speaker 1: of our terrace where the pot of the tulsi plant stands.
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Speaker 1: The princess lies sleeping on the far away shore of
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Speaker 1: the seven impassable seas. There is none in the world
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Speaker 1: who can find her but myself. She has bracelets on
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Speaker 1: her arms, and pearl drops in her ears. Her hair
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Speaker 1: sweeps down upon the floor. She will wake when I
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Speaker 1: touch her with my magic wand, and jewels will fall
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Speaker 1: from her lips when she smiles. But let me whisper
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Speaker 1: in your ear, mother, she is there in the corner
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Speaker 1: of our terrace where the pot of the tulsi plant stands.
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Speaker 1: When it is time for you to go to the
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Speaker 1: river for your bath, step up to that terrace on
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Speaker 1: the roof. I sit in the corner where the shadows
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Speaker 1: of the walls meet together. Only Puss is allowed to
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Speaker 1: come with me, for she knows where the Babo in
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Speaker 1: the story lives. But let me whisper, mother, in your ear,
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Speaker 1: where the Babo in the story lives. It is at
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Speaker 1: the corner of the terrace where the pot of the
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Speaker 1: tulsi plant stands. The land of the exile Mother, the
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Speaker 1: light has grown gray in the sky. I do not
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Speaker 1: know where the time is. There is no fun in
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Speaker 1: my play, so I have to come to you. It
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Speaker 1: is Saturday, our holiday. Leave off your work. Mother, Sit
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Speaker 1: here by the window, and tell me where the desert
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Speaker 1: of thee Panther in the fairy tale is. The shadow
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Speaker 1: of the rains has covered the day from end to end.
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Speaker 1: The fierce lightning is scratching the sky with its nails.
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Speaker 1: When the clouds rumble and it thunders. I love to
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Speaker 1: be afraid in my heart and cling to you when
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Speaker 1: the heavy rain patters for hours on the bamboo leaves,
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Speaker 1: and our windows shake and rattle at the gusts of wind.
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Speaker 1: I like to sit alone in the room, mother, with you,
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Speaker 1: and hear you talk about the desert of te Panther
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Speaker 1: in the fairy tale? Where is it? Mother? On the
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Speaker 1: shore of what sea, at the foot of what hills,
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Speaker 1: in the kingdom of what king There are no hedges
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Speaker 1: there to mark the fields, no footpath across it by
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Speaker 1: which the villagers reach their village in the evening. Or
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Speaker 1: the woman who gathers dry sticks in the forest can
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Speaker 1: bring her load to the market. With patches of yellow
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Speaker 1: grass in the sand, and only one tree where the
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Speaker 1: pair of wise old birds have their nest lies the
23:56
Speaker 1: desert of te Panther. I can imagine how, on such
24:01
Speaker 1: a cloudy day the young son of the king is
24:04
Speaker 1: riding alone on a gray horse through the desert in
24:08
Speaker 1: search of the princess who lies imprisoned in the giant's
24:11
Speaker 1: palace across that unknown water. When the haze of the
24:16
Speaker 1: rain comes down in the distant sky and lightning starts
24:20
Speaker 1: up like a sudden fit of pain, does he remember
24:23
Speaker 1: his unhappy mother, abandoned by the king, sweeping the cowstall
24:28
Speaker 1: and wiping her eyes while he rides through the desert
24:31
Speaker 1: of the Panther. In the fairy tale see Mother, it
24:36
Speaker 1: is almost dark before the day is over, and there
24:39
Speaker 1: are no travelers yonder on the village road. The shepherd
24:43
Speaker 1: boy has gone home early from the pasture, and men
24:46
Speaker 1: have left their fields to sit on mats under the
24:49
Speaker 1: eaves of their huts, watching the scowling clouds. Mother, I
24:54
Speaker 1: have left all my books on the shelf. Do not
24:57
Speaker 1: ask me to do my lessons now, when when I
25:00
Speaker 1: grow up and am big like my father. I shall
25:03
Speaker 1: learn all that must be learnt, But just for to day.
25:07
Speaker 1: Tell me mother, where the desert of the panther in
25:10
Speaker 1: the fairy tale is the rainy day. Sullen clouds are
25:17
Speaker 1: gathering fast over the black fringe of the forest. Oh child,
25:21
Speaker 1: do not go out. The palm trees in a row
25:24
Speaker 1: by the lake are smiting their heads against the dismal sky.
25:29
Speaker 1: The crows, with their draggled wings, are silent on the
25:32
Speaker 1: tamarind branches, and the eastern bank of the river is
25:36
Speaker 1: haunted by a deepening gloom. Our cow is lowing loud,
25:41
Speaker 1: tied at the fence. Oh child, wait here till I
25:44
Speaker 1: bring her into the stall. Men have crowded into the
25:48
Speaker 1: flooded field to catch the fishes as they escape from
25:52
Speaker 1: the overflowing ponds. The rain water is running in rills
25:56
Speaker 1: through the narrow lanes, like a laughing boy who has
25:58
Speaker 1: run away from his mother to tease her. Listen, some
26:03
Speaker 1: one is shouting for the boatmen at the ford, Oh child.
26:07
Speaker 1: The daylight is dim, and the crossing at the ferry
26:10
Speaker 1: is closed. The sky seems to ride fast upon the
26:15
Speaker 1: madly rushing rain. The water in the river is loud
26:18
Speaker 1: and impatient women have hastened home early from the Ganges
26:23
Speaker 1: with their filled pitchers. The evening lamps must be made ready,
26:29
Speaker 1: Oh child, do not go out. The road to the
26:32
Speaker 1: market is desolate. The lane to the river is slippery.
26:36
Speaker 1: The wind is roaring and struggling among the bamboo branches,
26:40
Speaker 1: like a wild beast tangled in a net. Paper boats.
26:47
Speaker 1: Day by day I float my paper boats one by
26:50
Speaker 1: one down the running stream. In big black letters. I
26:54
Speaker 1: write my name on them, and the name of the
26:57
Speaker 1: village where I live. I hope that some one in
27:00
Speaker 1: some strange land will find them and know who I am.
27:04
Speaker 1: I load my little boats with shuwly flowers from our
27:07
Speaker 1: garden and hope that these blooms of the dawn will
27:10
Speaker 1: be carried safely to land. In the night, I launch
27:15
Speaker 1: my paper boats and look up in the sky and
27:18
Speaker 1: see the little clouds setting their white, bulging sails. I
27:22
Speaker 1: know not what playmate of mine in the sky sends
27:25
Speaker 1: them down the air to race with my boats. When
27:29
Speaker 1: night comes, I bury my face in my arms and
27:32
Speaker 1: dream that my paper boats float on and on under
27:35
Speaker 1: the midnight stars. The fairies of sleep are sailing in them,
27:41
Speaker 1: and the lading is their baskets full of dreams. The
27:46
Speaker 1: sailor the boat of the boatman Madu, is moored at
27:51
Speaker 1: the wharf of Rajganj. It is uselessly laden with jute,
27:56
Speaker 1: and has been lying there idle for ever so long.
27:59
Speaker 1: If he would only lend me his boat, I should
28:02
Speaker 1: man her with a hundred oars and hoist sails five
28:06
Speaker 1: or six or seven. I should never steer her to
28:10
Speaker 1: stupid markets. I should sail the seven seas and the
28:13
Speaker 1: thirteen rivers of Fairyland. But mother, you won't weep for
28:19
Speaker 1: me in a corner. I am not going into the
28:22
Speaker 1: forest like Ramachandra, to come back only after fourteen years.
28:26
Speaker 1: I shall become the prince of the story and fill
28:29
Speaker 1: my boat with whatever I like. I shall take my
28:32
Speaker 1: friend Ashu with me. We shall sail merrily across the
28:36
Speaker 1: seven seas and the thirteen rivers of Fairyland. We shall
28:40
Speaker 1: set sail in the early morning light, when at noontide
28:45
Speaker 1: you are bathing at the pond. We shall be in
28:47
Speaker 1: the land of a strange king. We shall pass the
28:50
Speaker 1: ford of Tirpurni and leave behind us the desert of
28:54
Speaker 1: thee Panther. When we come back. It will be getting dark,
28:58
Speaker 1: and I shall tell you all that we have seen.
29:02
Speaker 1: I shall cross the seven seas and the thirteen rivers
29:05
Speaker 1: of Ferryland. End of chapter four, Chapter five of The
29:18
Speaker 1: Crescent Moon by Rabindranath Tagor. This LibriVox recording is in
29:22
Speaker 1: the public domain, Poems twenty one to twenty five. The
29:29
Speaker 1: Further Bank. I long to go over there, to the
29:33
Speaker 1: further bank of the river, where those boats are tied
29:37
Speaker 1: to the bamboo poles in a line, where men cross
29:40
Speaker 1: over in their boats in the morning, with plows on
29:43
Speaker 1: their shoulders to till their far away fields, where the
29:47
Speaker 1: cowherds make their lowing cattle swim across to the riverside pasture.
29:53
Speaker 1: Whence they all come back home in the evening, leaving
29:56
Speaker 1: the jackals to howl in the island overgrown with weeds. Mother,
30:01
Speaker 1: If you don't mind, I should like to become the
30:04
Speaker 1: boatmen of the Ferry when I'm grown up. They say.
30:07
Speaker 1: There are strange pools hidden behind that high bank, where
30:11
Speaker 1: flocks of wild ducks come when the rains are over,
30:15
Speaker 1: and thick reeds grow round the margins, where water birds
30:18
Speaker 1: lay their eggs, where snipes with their dancing tails stamp
30:22
Speaker 1: their tiny footprints upon the clean, soft mud, where in
30:26
Speaker 1: the evening the tall grasses, crested with white flowers, invite
30:30
Speaker 1: the moonbeam to float upon their waves. Mother, if you
30:35
Speaker 1: don't mind, I should like to become the boatmen of
30:37
Speaker 1: the ferry boat. When I'm grown up, I shall cross
30:41
Speaker 1: and cross back from bank to bank, and all the
30:44
Speaker 1: boys and girls of the village will wonder at me
30:46
Speaker 1: while they are bathing. When the sun climbs the mid
30:50
Speaker 1: sky and morning wears on to noon, I shall come
30:53
Speaker 1: running to you, saying mother, I am hungry. When the
30:58
Speaker 1: day is done and the shadows cour under the trees,
31:01
Speaker 1: I shall come back in the dusk. I shall never
31:05
Speaker 1: go away from you into the town to work like father. Mother.
31:09
Speaker 1: If you don't mind, I should like to become the
31:11
Speaker 1: boatmen of the ferry boat when I'm grown up. The
31:16
Speaker 1: flowers cool. When storm clouds rumble in the sky and
31:21
Speaker 1: June showers come down, the moist east wind comes marching
31:26
Speaker 1: over the heath to blow its bagpipes among the bamboos.
31:31
Speaker 1: Then crowds of flowers come out of a sudden from
31:34
Speaker 1: nobody knows where, and dance upon the grass in wild glee, Mother,
31:40
Speaker 1: I really think the flowers go to school underground. They
31:44
Speaker 1: do their lessons with doors shut, and if they want
31:48
Speaker 1: to come out to play before it is time, their
31:51
Speaker 1: master makes them stand in a corner. When the rain comes,
31:55
Speaker 1: they have their holidays. Branches clash together in the forest,
32:00
Speaker 1: and the leaves rustle in the wild wind. The thunder
32:03
Speaker 1: clouds clap their giant hands, and the flower children rush
32:07
Speaker 1: out in dresses of pink and yellow and white. Do
32:11
Speaker 1: you know, mother, their home is in the sky where
32:14
Speaker 1: the stars are. Haven't you seen how eager they are
32:18
Speaker 1: to get there. Don't you know why they are in
32:21
Speaker 1: such a hurry. Of course I can guess to whom
32:25
Speaker 1: they raise their arms. They have their mother, as I
32:28
Speaker 1: have my own, the merchant. Imagine, mother, that you are
32:35
Speaker 1: to stay at home and I am to travel into
32:37
Speaker 1: strange lands. Imagine that my boat is ready at the landing,
32:41
Speaker 1: fully laden. Now think well, mother, before you say what
32:46
Speaker 1: I shall bring for you when I come back. Mother,
32:50
Speaker 1: do you want heaps and heaps of gold? There By
32:55
Speaker 1: the banks of golden streams, fields are full of golden harvest,
33:00
Speaker 1: and in the shade of the forest path the golden
33:02
Speaker 1: chumper flowers drop on the ground. I will gather them
33:07
Speaker 1: all for you in many hundred baskets. Mother, do you
33:12
Speaker 1: want pearls big as the rain drops of autumn? I
33:16
Speaker 1: shall cross to the pearl island shore. There in the
33:19
Speaker 1: early morning light, pearls tremble on the meadow flowers, pearls
33:24
Speaker 1: drop on the grass, and pearls are scattered on the
33:27
Speaker 1: sand in spray by the wild sea waves. My brother
33:31
Speaker 1: shall have a pair of horses with wings to fly
33:34
Speaker 1: among the clouds. For father. I shall bring a magic
33:38
Speaker 1: pen that, without his knowing, will write of itself. For you, Mother,
33:46
Speaker 1: I must have the casket and jewel that cost seven
33:49
Speaker 1: kings their kingdoms sympathy. If I were only a little puppy,
33:56
Speaker 1: not your baby, mother dear, would you say not to me?
34:00
Speaker 1: If I tried to eat from your dish? Would you
34:03
Speaker 1: drive me off, saying to me, get away, you naughty
34:06
Speaker 1: little puppy, Then go, mother, go. I will never come
34:11
Speaker 1: to you when you call me, and never let you
34:14
Speaker 1: feed me any more. If I were only a little
34:17
Speaker 1: green parrot and not your baby mother dear, would you
34:21
Speaker 1: keep me chained lest I should fly away? Would you
34:25
Speaker 1: shake your finger at me and say, what an ungrateful
34:29
Speaker 1: wretch of a bird. It is gnawing at its chain
34:31
Speaker 1: day and night. Then go, mother, go, I will run
34:36
Speaker 1: away into the woods. I will never let you take
34:38
Speaker 1: me in your arms again. Vocation. When the gong sounds
34:45
Speaker 1: ten in the morning, and I walk to school by
34:47
Speaker 1: a lane, every day, I meet the hawker crying bengals,
34:52
Speaker 1: crystal bengles. There is nothing to hurry him on. There
34:57
Speaker 1: is no road he must take, no place he must
35:01
Speaker 1: no time when he must come home. I wish I
35:05
Speaker 1: were a hawker spending my day in the road, crying
35:08
Speaker 1: bengals crystal bangles. When at four in the afternoon I
35:14
Speaker 1: come back from the school, I can see through the
35:16
Speaker 1: gate of that house the gardener digging the ground. He
35:20
Speaker 1: does what he likes with his spade. He soils his
35:24
Speaker 1: clothes with dust. Nobody takes him to task. If he
35:28
Speaker 1: gets baked in the sun or gets wet, I wish
35:31
Speaker 1: I were a gardener, digging away at the garden, with
35:34
Speaker 1: nobody to stop me from digging. Just as it gets
35:38
Speaker 1: dark in the evening and my mother sends me to bed,
35:42
Speaker 1: I can see through my open window the watchman walking
35:45
Speaker 1: up and down the lane. Is dark and lonely, and
35:49
Speaker 1: the street lamp stands like a giant with one red
35:52
Speaker 1: eye in its head. The watchman swings his lantern and
35:56
Speaker 1: walks with his shadow at his side, and never once
35:59
Speaker 1: goes to bed in his life. I wish I were
36:03
Speaker 1: a watchman, walking the streets all night, chasing the shadows
36:07
Speaker 1: with my lantern. End of chapter five, Chapter six of
36:19
Speaker 1: The Crescent Moon by Rabindra Na Tegor. This LibriVox recording
36:23
Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Poems twenty six to thirty
36:30
Speaker 1: Superior Mother, Your baby is silly. She is so absurdly childish.
36:37
Speaker 1: She does not know the difference between the lights in
36:40
Speaker 1: the streets and the stars. When we play at eating
36:43
Speaker 1: with pebbles, she thinks they are real food and tries
36:47
Speaker 1: to put them into her mouth. When I open a
36:50
Speaker 1: book before her and ask her to learn her A.
36:53
Speaker 1: B C. She tears the leaves with her hands and
36:56
Speaker 1: roars for joy at nothing. This is your baby's wis
37:00
Speaker 1: of doing her lesson. When I shake my head at
37:03
Speaker 1: her in anger and scold her and call her naughty,
37:07
Speaker 1: she laughs and thinks it great fun. Everybody knows that
37:12
Speaker 1: father is away, but if in play I call a
37:15
Speaker 1: loud father She looks about her in excitement and thinks
37:19
Speaker 1: that father is near. When I hold my class with
37:22
Speaker 1: the donkeys that a washerman brings to carry away the clothes,
37:26
Speaker 1: and I warn her that I am the schoolmaster, she
37:29
Speaker 1: will scream for no reason and call me Dada. Your
37:33
Speaker 1: baby wants to catch the moon. She is so funny.
37:37
Speaker 1: She calls Ganesh Ganush Ganesh, a common name in India,
37:42
Speaker 1: also that of the god with the elphint's head. Mother,
37:46
Speaker 1: your baby is silly. She is so absurdly childish, the
37:52
Speaker 1: little big man. I am small because I am a
37:56
Speaker 1: little child. I shall be big when I am as
37:59
Speaker 1: old as my father is. My teacher will come and
38:03
Speaker 1: say it is late. Bring your slate and your books.
38:07
Speaker 1: I shall tell him, do you not know I am
38:09
Speaker 1: as big as father, and I must not have lessons
38:12
Speaker 1: any more. My master will wonder and say he can
38:17
Speaker 1: leave his books if he likes, for he has grown up.
38:21
Speaker 1: I shall dress myself and walk to the fair where
38:24
Speaker 1: the crowd is thick. My uncle will come rushing up
38:28
Speaker 1: to me and say he will get lost, my boy,
38:31
Speaker 1: let me carry you. I shall answer, can't you see? Uncle?
38:36
Speaker 1: I am as big as father. I must go to
38:39
Speaker 1: the fair alone. Uncle will say, yes, he can go
38:45
Speaker 1: wherever he likes, for he is grown up. Mother will
38:49
Speaker 1: come from her bath when I am giving money to
38:51
Speaker 1: my nurse, for I shall know how to open the
38:54
Speaker 1: box with my key. Mother will say, what are you about,
38:58
Speaker 1: naughty child? I shall tell her, mother, don't you know
39:04
Speaker 1: I am as big as father, and I must give
39:06
Speaker 1: silver to my nurse. Mother will say to herself he
39:11
Speaker 1: can give money to whom he likes, for he has
39:13
Speaker 1: grown up. In the holiday time in October, Father will
39:18
Speaker 1: come home, and, thinking that I am still a baby,
39:21
Speaker 1: will bring for me from the town little shoes and
39:24
Speaker 1: small silken frocks. I shall say, Father, give them to
39:30
Speaker 1: my dather, for I am as big as you are.
39:34
Speaker 1: Father will think and say he can buy his own
39:38
Speaker 1: clothes if he likes, for he has grown up. Twelve o'clock, Mother,
39:45
Speaker 1: I do want to leave off my lessons. Now I
39:48
Speaker 1: have been at my book all the morning. You say
39:51
Speaker 1: it is only twelve o'clock. Suppose it isn't any later.
39:55
Speaker 1: Can't you ever think it is afternoon when it is
39:58
Speaker 1: only twelve o'clock. I can easily imagine now that the
40:02
Speaker 1: sun has reached the edge of that rice field, and
40:05
Speaker 1: the old fisherwoman is gathering herbs for her supper by
40:09
Speaker 1: the side of the pond. I can just shut my
40:12
Speaker 1: eyes and think that the shadows are growing darker under
40:16
Speaker 1: the mother tree, and the water in the pond looks
40:19
Speaker 1: shiny black. If twelve o'clock can come in the night,
40:24
Speaker 1: why can't the night come when it is twelve o'clock? Authorship?
40:31
Speaker 1: You say that father writes a lot of books, But
40:34
Speaker 1: what he writes I don't understand. He was reading to
40:37
Speaker 1: you all the evening. But could you really make out
40:40
Speaker 1: what he meant? What nice stories? Mother? You can tell us?
40:45
Speaker 1: Why can't father write like that? I wonder did he
40:49
Speaker 1: never hear from his own mother stories of giants and
40:52
Speaker 1: fairies and princesses? Has he forgotten them all? Often? When
40:58
Speaker 1: he gets late for his bath, you have to go
41:00
Speaker 1: and call him a hundred times. You wait and keep
41:04
Speaker 1: his dishes warm for him, But he goes on writing
41:07
Speaker 1: and forgets. Father always plays at making books. If ever
41:13
Speaker 1: I go to play in father's room, you come and
41:16
Speaker 1: call me, what a naughty child? If I make the
41:19
Speaker 1: slightest noise, you say, don't you see that Father's at
41:22
Speaker 1: his work? What's the fun of always writing and writing?
41:29
Speaker 1: When I take up father's pen or pencil and write
41:32
Speaker 1: upon his book just as he does abcd e f
41:37
Speaker 1: g h I. Why do you get cross with me? Then? Mother?
41:42
Speaker 1: You never say a word when father writes. When my
41:46
Speaker 1: father wastes such heaps of paper, Mother, you don't seem
41:50
Speaker 1: to mind at all. But if I take only one
41:53
Speaker 1: sheet to make a boat with you, say, child, how
41:56
Speaker 1: troublesome you are? What do you think of father's spoiling
42:00
Speaker 1: sheets and sheets of paper with black marks all over
42:04
Speaker 1: on both sides? The wicked postman? Why do you sit
42:10
Speaker 1: there on the floor so quiet and silent? Tell me, mother, dear,
42:15
Speaker 1: the rain is coming in through the open window, making
42:19
Speaker 1: you all wet, and you don't mind it. Do you
42:22
Speaker 1: hear the gong striking? Four? It is time for my
42:26
Speaker 1: brother to come home from school. What has happened to
42:30
Speaker 1: you that you look so strange? Haven't you got a
42:33
Speaker 1: letter from father? To day? I saw the postman bringing
42:37
Speaker 1: letters in his bag for almost everybody in the town.
42:40
Speaker 1: Only Father's letters he keeps to read himself. I am
42:45
Speaker 1: sure the postman is a wicked man, but don't be
42:48
Speaker 1: unhappy about that. Mother, Dear, tomorrow is market day in
42:53
Speaker 1: the next village. You ask your maid to buy some
42:56
Speaker 1: pens and papers. I myself will write all Father's letters.
43:02
Speaker 1: You will not find a single mistake. I shall write
43:05
Speaker 1: from a write up to k But Mother, why do
43:10
Speaker 1: you smile? You don't believe that I can write as
43:13
Speaker 1: nicely as Father does. But I shall rule my paper
43:17
Speaker 1: carefully and write all the letters beautifully. Big. When I
43:22
Speaker 1: finish my writing, do you think I shall be so
43:25
Speaker 1: foolish as father and drop it into the horrid postman's bag.
43:30
Speaker 1: I shall bring it to you myself without waiting, and
43:34
Speaker 1: letter by letter help you to read my writing. I
43:38
Speaker 1: know the postman does not like to give you the
43:40
Speaker 1: really nice letters. End of chapter six, Chapter seven of
43:52
Speaker 1: The Crescent Moon by Rebindar and Natigo. This LibriVox recording
43:57
Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Thirty one to thirty five
44:03
Speaker 1: the hero mother. Let us imagine we are traveling and
44:09
Speaker 1: passing through a strange and dangerous country. You are riding
44:13
Speaker 1: in a palanquin, and I am trotting by you on
44:16
Speaker 1: a red horse. It is evening, and the sun goes down.
44:20
Speaker 1: The waste of Jiuravighi lies wan and gray before us.
44:25
Speaker 1: The land is desolate and barren. You are frightened and
44:30
Speaker 1: thinking I know not where we have come to. I
44:33
Speaker 1: say to you, mother, do not be afraid. The meadow
44:38
Speaker 1: is prickly with spiky grass, and through it runs in narrow,
44:42
Speaker 1: broken paths. There are no cattle to be seen in
44:45
Speaker 1: the wide field. They have gone to their village stalls.
44:50
Speaker 1: It grows dark and dim on the land and sky,
44:54
Speaker 1: and we cannot tell where we are going. Suddenly you
44:58
Speaker 1: call me and ask me in a whisper, what light
45:01
Speaker 1: is that near the bank. Just then there bursts out
45:06
Speaker 1: a fearful yell, and figures come running towards us. You
45:11
Speaker 1: sit crouched in your palanquin and repeat the names of
45:13
Speaker 1: the gods in prayer. The bearers, shaking in terror, hide
45:19
Speaker 1: themselves in the thorny bush. I shout to you, don't
45:23
Speaker 1: be afraid, mother. I am here with long sticks in
45:27
Speaker 1: their hands and hair all wild about their heads. They
45:31
Speaker 1: come nearer and nearer. I shout, have a care you villains.
45:36
Speaker 1: One step more and you are dead men. They give
45:40
Speaker 1: another terrible yell and rush forward. You clutch my hand
45:44
Speaker 1: and say, dear boy, for Heaven's sake, keep away from them,
45:49
Speaker 1: I say, mother, just you watch me. Then I spur
45:53
Speaker 1: my horse for a wild gallop, and my sword and
45:56
Speaker 1: buckler clash against each other. The fight becomes so fearful, mother,
46:02
Speaker 1: that it would give you a cold shudder? Could you
46:05
Speaker 1: see it from your palanquin? Many of them fly, and
46:09
Speaker 1: a great number are cut to pieces. I know you
46:12
Speaker 1: are thinking, sitting all by yourself, that your boy must
46:16
Speaker 1: be dead by this time. But I come to you,
46:19
Speaker 1: all stained with blood, and say, mother, the fight is over.
46:24
Speaker 1: Now you come out and kiss me, pressing me to
46:28
Speaker 1: your heart, And you say to yourself, I don't know
46:31
Speaker 1: what I should do. If I hadn't my boy to
46:34
Speaker 1: escort me. A thousand useless things happened day after day,
46:39
Speaker 1: And why couldn't such a thing come true? By chance?
46:42
Speaker 1: It would be like a story in a book. My
46:45
Speaker 1: brother would say, is it possible? I always thought he
46:49
Speaker 1: was so delicate. Our village people would all say, in amazement,
46:54
Speaker 1: was it not lucky that the boy was with his
46:56
Speaker 1: mother the end? It is time for me to go, mother,
47:04
Speaker 1: I am going. When in the paling darkness of the
47:07
Speaker 1: lonely dawn, you stretch out your arms for your baby
47:11
Speaker 1: in the bed, I shall say, baby is not there, Mother,
47:16
Speaker 1: I am going. I shall become a delicate draft of
47:20
Speaker 1: air and caress you, and I shall be ripples in
47:23
Speaker 1: the water when you bathe, and kiss you, and kiss
47:27
Speaker 1: you again. In the gusty night, when the rain patters
47:31
Speaker 1: on the leaves, you will hear my whisper in your bed,
47:34
Speaker 1: and my laughter will flash with the lightning through the
47:37
Speaker 1: open window into your room. If you lie awake thinking
47:42
Speaker 1: of your baby till late into the night, I shall
47:45
Speaker 1: sing to you from the stars. Sleep, mother, sleep on
47:50
Speaker 1: the straying moonbeams. I shall steal over your bed and
47:54
Speaker 1: lie upon your bosom. While you sleep. I shall become
47:58
Speaker 1: a dream, and through the little opening of your eyelids,
48:01
Speaker 1: I shall slip into the depths of your sleep. And
48:05
Speaker 1: when you wake up and look round, startled like a
48:09
Speaker 1: twinkling firefly, I shall flit out into the darkness. When
48:14
Speaker 1: on the great festival of Pooja, the neighbor's children come
48:18
Speaker 1: and play about the house, I shall melt into the
48:21
Speaker 1: music of the flute and throb in your heart all day.
48:26
Speaker 1: Dear Auntie will come with Pooja presents and will ask
48:30
Speaker 1: where is our baby's sister? Mother. You will tell her softly.
48:35
Speaker 1: He is in the pupils of my eyes. He is
48:38
Speaker 1: in my body and in my soul. The recall. The
48:45
Speaker 1: night was dark when she went away, and they slept.
48:49
Speaker 1: The night is dark now, and I call for her.
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Speaker 1: Come back, my darling. The world is asleep, and no
48:55
Speaker 1: one would know if you came for a moment. While
48:58
Speaker 1: stars are gazing at stars. She went away when the
49:03
Speaker 1: trees were in bud and the spring was young. Now
49:06
Speaker 1: the flowers are in high bloom, and I call come back,
49:10
Speaker 1: my darling. The children gather and scatter flowers in reckless spot,
49:16
Speaker 1: and if you come and take one little blossom, no
49:18
Speaker 1: one will miss it. Those that used to play are
49:22
Speaker 1: playing still, So spentthrift is life. I listen to their
49:27
Speaker 1: chatter and call, come back, my darling. For Mother's heart
49:31
Speaker 1: is full to the brim with love. And if you
49:34
Speaker 1: come to snatch only one little kiss from her, no
49:37
Speaker 1: one will grudge it. The first jasmines, Ah, these jasmines,
49:45
Speaker 1: these white jasmines. I seem to remember the first day
49:49
Speaker 1: when I filled my hands with these jasmines, these white jasmines.
49:54
Speaker 1: I have loved the sunlight, the sky and the green earths.
49:59
Speaker 1: I have the liquid murmur of the river. Through the
50:02
Speaker 1: darkness of midnight. Autumn sunsets have come to me at
50:07
Speaker 1: the bend of a road, in the lonely waste, like
50:10
Speaker 1: a bride raising her veil to accept her lover. Yet
50:15
Speaker 1: my memory is still sweet with the first white jasmines
50:18
Speaker 1: that I held in my hand when I was a child.
50:22
Speaker 1: Many a glad day has come in my life, and
50:25
Speaker 1: I have laughed with merry makers on festival nights, on
50:30
Speaker 1: gray mornings of rain. I have crooned many an idle song.
50:35
Speaker 1: I have worn round my neck the evening wreath of Bakula's,
50:39
Speaker 1: woven by the hand of love. Yet my heart is
50:42
Speaker 1: sweet with the memory of the first fresh chasmines that
50:46
Speaker 1: filled my hands when I was a child. The Banyan tree, Oh,
50:53
Speaker 1: you shaggy headed banyan tree, standing on the bank of
50:57
Speaker 1: the pond. Have you forgotten the little child like the
51:01
Speaker 1: birds that have nested in your branches and left you?
51:04
Speaker 1: Do you not remember how he sat at the window
51:07
Speaker 1: and wondered at the tangle of your roots that plunged underground.
51:12
Speaker 1: The women would come to fill their jars in the pond,
51:16
Speaker 1: and your huge black shadow would wriggle on the water
51:20
Speaker 1: like sleep, struggling to wake up. Sunlight danced on the
51:24
Speaker 1: ripples like restless, tiny shuttles, weaving golden tapestry. Two ducks
51:31
Speaker 1: swam by the weedy margin, above their shadows, and the
51:35
Speaker 1: child would sit still and think. He longed to be
51:39
Speaker 1: the wind and blow through your rustling branches, To be
51:43
Speaker 1: your shadow and lengthen with the day on the water,
51:47
Speaker 1: To be a bird and perch on your topmost twig,
51:51
Speaker 1: and to float like those ducks among the weeds and shadows.
51:57
Speaker 1: End of chapter seven, Chapter eight of The Crescent Moon
52:07
Speaker 1: by Rabindruna Tegor. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
52:13
Speaker 1: Recording by Anusha a year Mumbai Poems thirty six to
52:19
Speaker 1: forty benediction. Bless this little heart, this white soul that
52:27
Speaker 1: has won the kiss of heaven for our earth. He
52:31
Speaker 1: loves the light of the sun. He loves the sight
52:34
Speaker 1: of his mother's face. He has not learned to despise
52:38
Speaker 1: the dust and to hanker after gold. Clasp him to
52:43
Speaker 1: your heart and bless him. He has come into this
52:47
Speaker 1: land of a hundred cross roads. I know not how
52:51
Speaker 1: he chose you from the crowd came to your door
52:54
Speaker 1: and grasped your hand to ask his way. He will
52:58
Speaker 1: follow you, laughing, talking, and not a doubt in his heart.
53:04
Speaker 1: Keep his trust, lead him straight and bless him. Lay
53:09
Speaker 1: your hand on his head, and pray that though the
53:12
Speaker 1: waves underneath grow threatening, yet the breath from above may
53:16
Speaker 1: come and fill his sails and waft him to the
53:19
Speaker 1: heaven of peace. Forget him not in your hurry. Let
53:24
Speaker 1: him come to your heart, and bless him the gift.
53:31
Speaker 1: I want to give you something, my child, For we
53:34
Speaker 1: are drifting in the stream of the world. Our lives
53:37
Speaker 1: will be carried apart, and our love forgotten. But I
53:42
Speaker 1: am not so foolish as to hope that I could
53:44
Speaker 1: buy your heart with my gifts. Young, is your life,
53:49
Speaker 1: your path long? And you drink the love we bring
53:53
Speaker 1: you at one draft, and turn and run away from us.
53:57
Speaker 1: You have your play and your playmates. What harm is
54:01
Speaker 1: there if you have no time or thought for us?
54:05
Speaker 1: We indeed have leisure enough in old age to count
54:09
Speaker 1: the days that are past, to cherish in our hearts
54:12
Speaker 1: what our hands have lost. For ever. The river runs
54:16
Speaker 1: swift with a song, breaking through all barriers, But the
54:21
Speaker 1: mountain stays and remembers, and follows her with his love.
54:28
Speaker 1: My song, this song of mine, will wind its music
54:33
Speaker 1: around you, my child, like the fond arms of love.
54:38
Speaker 1: This song of mine will touch your forehead like a
54:40
Speaker 1: kiss of blessing. When you are alone. It will sit
54:44
Speaker 1: by your side and whisper in your ear. When you
54:47
Speaker 1: are in the crowd, it will fence you about with aloofness.
54:52
Speaker 1: My song will be like a pair of wings to
54:54
Speaker 1: your dreams. It will transport your heart to the verge
54:58
Speaker 1: of the unknown. It will be like the faithful star overhead.
55:02
Speaker 1: When dark night is over your road, my song will
55:07
Speaker 1: sit in the pupils of your eyes and will carry
55:10
Speaker 1: your sight into the heart of things. And when my
55:14
Speaker 1: voice is silent in death, my song will speak in
55:18
Speaker 1: your living heart, the child Angel. They clamor and fight,
55:26
Speaker 1: They doubt and despair. They know no end to their wranglings.
55:31
Speaker 1: Let your life come amongst them like a flame of light,
55:34
Speaker 1: my child, unflickering and pure, and delight them into silence.
55:41
Speaker 1: They are cruel in their greed and their envy. Their
55:44
Speaker 1: words are like hidden knives thirsting for blood. Go and
55:49
Speaker 1: stand amidst their scowling hearts, My child, and let your
55:52
Speaker 1: gentle eyes fall upon them, like the forgiving peace of
55:56
Speaker 1: the evening over the strife of the day. Let them
56:00
Speaker 1: see your face, my child, and thus know the meaning
56:03
Speaker 1: of all things. Let them love you, and thus love
56:07
Speaker 1: each other. Come and take your seat in the bosom
56:11
Speaker 1: of the limitless, my child. At sunrise, open and raise
56:16
Speaker 1: your heart like a blossoming flower. And at sunset bend
56:20
Speaker 1: your head, and in silence complete the worship of the day.
56:26
Speaker 1: The last bargain, Come and hire me, I cried, While
56:32
Speaker 1: in the morning I was walking on the stone paved road,
56:36
Speaker 1: sword in hand. The king came in his chariot. He
56:40
Speaker 1: held my hand and said, I will hire you with
56:43
Speaker 1: my power. But his power counted for naught, and he
56:48
Speaker 1: went away in his chariot. In the heat of the
56:51
Speaker 1: mid day, the houses stood with shut doors. I wandered
56:56
Speaker 1: along the crooked lane. An old man came out with
56:59
Speaker 1: his bag of gold. He pondered and said, I will
57:04
Speaker 1: hire you with my money. He weighed his coins one
57:08
Speaker 1: by one, but I turned away. It was evening. The
57:13
Speaker 1: garden hedge was all a flower. The fair maid came
57:17
Speaker 1: out and said, I will hire you with a smile.
57:21
Speaker 1: Her smile paled and melted into tears, and she went
57:25
Speaker 1: back alone into the dark. The sun glistened on the sand,
57:30
Speaker 1: and the sea waves broke waywardly. A child sat playing
57:34
Speaker 1: with shells. He raised his head and seemed to know me,
57:39
Speaker 1: and said, I hire you with nothing. From thenceforward, that
57:45
Speaker 1: bargain struck in child's play made me a free man.
57:50
Speaker 1: End of Chapter eight recording by Anusha a year Mumbai.
57:57
Speaker 1: End of the Crescent Moon by rabindr. Not to go