In Praise of Trees

In Praise of Trees 

Rabindranath Tagore. 1926.

O Tree, life-founder, you heard the sun

Summon you from the dark womb of earth

At your life’s first weakening; your height

Raised from rythmless rock the first

Hymn to the light; you brought feeling to harsh

Impassive desert.

Thus, in the sky,

By mixed magic, blue with green, you flung

The song of the world’s spirit at heaven

And the tribe of stars. Facing the unknown,

You flew with fearless pride the victory

Banner of the life-force that passes

Again and again through death’s gateway

To follow an endless pilgrim-road

Through time, through changing resting places,

In ever new mortal vehicles.

Earth’s reverie snapped at your noiseless

Challenge: excitedly she recalled

Her daring departure from heaven

A daughter of God leaving its bright

Splendour, ashy-pale , dressed in humble

Ochre-coloured garments, to partake

Of the joy of heaven fragmented

Into time and places, to receive it

More deeply now that she would often

Pierce it with stabs of grief.

O valiant

Child of the earth, you declared a war

To liberate her from that fortress

Of desert. The war was incessant

You crossed ocean-waves to establish ,

With resolute faith, green seats of power

On bare, inaccessible islands;

You bewitched dust, scaled peaks, wrote on stone

In leafy characters your battle

Tales; you spread your code over trackless

Wastes.

Sky, earth, sea were expressionless

Once. Lacking the festival magic

Of the seasons. Your branches offered

Music its first shelter, made the songs

In which the restless wind – colouring

With kaleidoscopic melody

Her invisible body, edging

Her shawl with prismatic tune – first knew

Herself. You were the first to describe

On earth’s clay canvas, by absorbing

Plastic power from the sun. a living

Image of beauty.You possessed light’s

Hidden wealth to give colour to light.

When celestial dancing-nymphs shook

Their bracelets in the clouds, shattering

Those misty cups to rain down freshening

Nectar, you filled therewith your vessels

Of leafs and flower to clothe the earth

With perpetual youth.

O profound,

Silent tree, by restraining valour

With patience, you revealed creative

Power in its peaceful form. Thus we come

To your shade to learn the art of peace,

To hear the word of silence; weighed down

With anxiety, we come to rest

In you tranquil blue-green shade, to take

Into our souls life rich, life ever

Juvenescent, life true to earth, life

Omni-victorious. I am certain

My thoughts have borne me to your essence

Where the same fire as the sun’s ritual

Fire of creation quietly assumes

In your cool green form. O sun-drinker,

The fire with which – by milking hundreds

Of centuries of days sunlight –

You have filled your core, man has received

As your gift, making him world-mighty,

Greatly honoured, rival to the gods:

His shining strength, kindled by your flame,

Is the wonder of the universe

As it cuts through daunting obstacles.

Man, whose life is in you, who is soothed

By your cool shade, strengthened by your power.

Adorned by your garland – O tree, friend

Of man, dazed by your leafy flute song

I speak today for him as I make

This verse-homage ,

As I dedicate this offering

To you.