SRI AUROBINDO
Translations
from Sanskrit and Other Languages
II. From Bengali
XVII
Into the hollow of whose hand my heart
I gave once, surely thinking him my lover,
How shall I now forget him? by what art
My captive soul recover?
I took Love’s graver up and slow portrayed
His beauty on my soul with lingering care.
How shall the picture1 from its back-ground fade,
Burnt in so deeply there.
“He has forgotten thee, forget him thou;”
All say to me, “a vain thing is regret.”
Ah yes, that day when death is on my brow,
I shall indeed forget.
1 etching