POETRY IS LIKE TAKING A DEEP BREATH

Saturday 15 January 2011

IF THY SOUL IS A STRANGER TO THEE





I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty,
Perceivest thou not how the god is in thine own house,
that thou wanderest from forest to forest so listlessly?

In thy home is the Truth. Go where thou wilt, 
to Benares or to Mathura;
If thy soul is a stranger to thee
The whole world is unhomely.


Kabir

Translated from the Hindi by
Rabindranath Tagore  
and revised by
Robert Bridges




Kabir, 1450?-1518
Indian Mystic who wrote in Hindi and Punjabi