Canto 12The Triumph-Song of Trishuncou

Book 3. Part Three - Baroda and Bengal Circa 1900 – 1909

Poems from Ahana and Other Poems

Or else the web behind us is unravelled

And on its threads we gaze, —

Past motions of the stars, scenes long since travelled

5In Time’s far-backward days.

The Triumph-Song of Trishuncou

I shall not die.

Although this body, when the spirit tires

Of its cramped residence, shall feed the fires,

10My house consumes, not I.

Leaving that case

I find out ample and ethereal room.

My spirit shall avoid the hungry tomb,

Deceiving death’s embrace.

15Night shall contain

The sun in its cold depths; Time too must cease;

The stars that labour shall have their release.

I cease not, I remain.

Ere the first seeds

20Were sown on earth, I was already old,

And when now unborn planets shall grow cold

My history proceeds.

I am the light

In stars, the strength of lions and the joy

25Of mornings; I am man and maid and boy,

Protean, infinite.

I am a tree

That stands out singly from the infinite blue;

I am the quiet falling of the dew

30And am the unmeasured sea.