Otherwise not worth a cent

(1934)  Tomar varata baye jai

I go on carrying Your tidings;
With Your work I keep myself busy.
My everything is on account of You only;
These are the words well-formed I continue singing.

On stellar sky, like mote of dust, I have arrived;
On mental sky, hey my Love, Yourself I've acquired.
My going and coming, my weeping and laughing;
At their root is Your compassion only.

But for You I don't exist– this fact I perceive;
On strings of Your viina, a jangle I bring.
Your champak-touch, scope gauged for novelty,
Having felt that, I proclaim my respectful greetings.

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My Lord, so sweet

(1933)  Maneri gahane madhura carane

Into depths of my mind, with honeyed feet
Please come, oh Beloved, revered by everyone.
Expecting Thee, alert am I seated,
In this self-discipline of silence.

The silence You dash, You bring grandiloquence;
Into a glum life, fine gentleness You dispense.
The history of me, my ballad of distress,
In Your looking glass is its portrait.

My faults and my virtues, You know each one;
So draw me close, to my sins granting pardon.
Upon me do confer the purest devotion^[1]
To traverse a shoreless ocean.

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Do stay but don't stop

(1932)  Anek diner pare, tomare pelum ghare

After days aplenty
I discovered You in home.
Please stay at my abode, having lit up psyche;
Far away I won't give You leave to go.

I know not how the penance of many ages
Made my dark-moon night get distanced.
But the night-meditation, it has fetched
Sun at dawn to doorstep.

This morn, that for whole life it remain
And keep me glad throughout each day,
By Your touch, in delight let sway
Mind and heart always.

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To what effect His advent?

(1931)  Phaguner upavane maner gahan kone

In a springtime garden, at a remote psychic niche,
With which hope a fire You ignited?
Not a thing did You desire,
But not tiny was what's left behind...
And not a thing You told, even by hint.

To a smiling palash arbor You'd come with loving geste.
And neath silk-cotton trees they had peered a-frequent,
Mango buds, both eyes trained in Your direction...
Into the air You infused imagination.

Oh the Unknown Traveler, You are never unfamiliar;
In a lonely niche of mind, You reside, forced to go often.
To find You, I fly up to the sky, wings outspread;
Your not wanting to be close, I look to the heavens.

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I am He

(1930)  Dhara dile dharatale

To the surface of the earth You resigned;
You went on filling with moonlight.
You will return, but when I do not know;
When... I do not know.
Sweetness in abundance You supplied;
You took control of the mind.
Right or wrong time... You did not note.

With a smiling face You had arrived
Maintaining contact eye to eye.
Touching life with Your life,
Oh what did You not bestow!

Anything that is benign, You are that only;
To what is harmful, never are You sparing.
You have moved, evil subduing;
Vacillate in fear You don't!

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His love makes all things right

(1929)  Bhav khunjechilo bhasa

Mood had searched for speech,
And speech had craved melody.
Mental state races past imagination,
And tune capers round about Your anklets.

You arrived with love's effulgence,
And with cadence You did fill.
With a jangle You delighted,
And the heart had been bewildered.

I have got acquainted with Thee
And the why You've come descending.
Dancing You go on incessantly,
Having distanced any misery.

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The supreme shelter and protector

(1928)  Arun tomar ruperi liilay

Morning Sun, with your divine play of form only,
A surging ocean starts overflowing.
One speck of that form rises from sleep,
And ten million of the sky's nebulae sing.

Hey Makeup Artist, what is this you are doing!
You have filled the world with love's sea.
Into form and yet transcendent you are stooping;
You have gone dancing in the study of beauty.

In Liila's game your peer is not there;
You make the three realms^[1] laugh and cry constantly.
Musing on that state, I don't attain profundity:
Sheltered I've arrived, dependent on mercy.

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