COMPANION OF THE POOR

COMPANION OF THE POOR

Where resides the lowest of low and the poorest of poor,

It is there where you step in and gracefully place your fee

That’s behind everybody, that’s beneath everyone

and amongst those who are dispossessed of everything.

When I bow my head to touch your feet to offer pronam,

My head gets stuck somewhere in between,

When your feet descends below a level where indignity prevails,

My head - I concede - cannot bow down to that level –

That’s behind everybody, that’s beneath everyone

and amongst those who are dispossessed of everything.

Arrogance can never reach where you wander around

shabbily dressed, looking humble and poor -

That’s behind everybody, that’s beneath everyone

and amongst those who are dispossessed of everything.

Where wealth and honour co-exist in abundance,

It is there where I expect your company.

Where you are in company with those who are forsaken at home,

My heart lacks the will to climb down to such a level -

That’s behind everybody, that’s beneath everyone

and amongst those who are dispossessed of everything.

Dr DEBIDAS RAY.

English translation of Rabindranath Tagore’s poem

entitled “Deener sangi” from his collection of poems “Geetanjali”

in SANCHAYITA,11^th ed,2010,p508.

The first line of the original Bengali poem: –

Jethay thaake sabaar  adham deener hote deen

Published in THE VISVA-BHARATI QUARTERLY

Volume 23 Number 4 & Volume Number 1 January 2015- June 2015  p3.