To a Jubilant Sea: February 2011

song

from a jubilant sea

a flood o'erflowed,

and pulling at oars sat we all

and hauled,

how we hauled!

laden until it could barely float,

so we filled our feeble boat;

laughing at death

through torrents we rowed

to a jubilant sea

where floods o'erflow.

those behind - we heed them not,

nor frenzied cries that danger looms;

why, any fool can cry life's dooms

call a curse and fault our fate

while on grassy banks they wait!

but as for me with halyard taut

and song arising loud in heart,

I go

to a jubilant sea

where floods o'erflow.

-Rabindranath Tagore-

translation by John Thorpe