IN SICK BED

English Translation of  Tagore's original Bengali poem " Rogasajjaay" by DEBIDAS RAY 

In the land of Gods during dance festivals,

if even for a moment, a tired Urvashi

by chance misses a single step,

the King of Gods does not pardon her.

In venues where human beings meet

there too, the same rules of heavens apply.

That is why, there is diffidence underlying

my literary work because I fear that

due to exhaustion at the end of a burning fevered day

there may occur – in such pursuit - laxity

and inadvertent faltering in steps.

English translation of the introduction to “Rogasajjaay” – a collection of poems written  in sick bed by Rabindranath Tagore in SANCHAYITA, 4^th.ed, 1943, p876.

 Published in POETRY WORLD, vol 3(no 8), December 2010, p26.