Poems Of India - VIII

A man filled grain
in a tattered sack
and walked all night
fearing the toll-gates

but the grain went through the tatters
and all he got was the gunny sack.

It is thus
with the devotion
of the faint-hearted

****

Can the wind bring out
and publish for others
the fragrance
in the little bud?

Can even begetters, father and mother,
display for onlooker's eyes
the future breast and flowing hair
in the little girl
about to be bride?

Only ripeness
can show consequence,

O Ramanatha.

--DĒVARA DĀSIMAYYA [Translated by A. K. Ramanujan in the book - Speaking of Siva]

The Rubaiyat: Quatrain XLVIII

While the Rose blows along the River Brink,
With old Khayyam the Ruby Vintage drink:
And when the Angel with his darker Draught
Draws up to thee—take that, and do not shrink.

This is the forty-eighth quatrain of the FitzGerald's Rubaiyat. The poet says, while the roses in this pleasant garden along a river blows in the wind, and old and ripe Khayyam is sitting drinking his favorite wine and enjoying the sights and sounds that nature offers him and the glass of his beloved wine and satisfaction of his age and life lived. And in this setting, when the Angel (of Death) draws up close to you with his darker brew, take that what comes your way and accept it and do not shrink. Death has to come to all and when the time comes, accept it gracefully and with all dignity.