(To the lady who made me love her)

O lady, you, who found me
Among many when so new to the world I was,
O you lady divine who saw me
And blessed me with your love,
I thank you, as my heart so flies away
To happiness which stays in seventh heaven,
You, who brought me from obscurity
And darkness to glory and luminescence.
There I was, a small child,
So ignorant to the ways of the world,
Taking meager pleasures out of modest means,
Roaming and searching what I not knew;
You found me as I saw you
And felt as something strong in my heart grew.
Oh! Searched I, like a fool, for a beauty
That was, to me, still unseen,
Oh! I dreamed of the fairest lady,
And she had no name and face.
I dreamt of the tender footfalls
Approaching towards me;
Oh! So near she would be,
But so far as a thing un-existing.
Yes, the fool that I was, who dreamt
With eyes closed, and saw not
What lay before his eyes.
Late the love came but strong it grew,
Fate the lucky bird, so sweet it flew.
O, my love was a plant of the tropics
Which rises and rises until its high,
Sunlight blessing my eyes I slept in days
When night came I counted the stars of the sky.
O you lady of wonder, what magic you are
From ground so hard who brought me so far;
You know not what it means to spend a day,
Without you happiness goes astray.
O lady of beauty, you are not beautiful
For beauty itself you are,
You are one that is born but once,
Not one like you are there in lands afar.
Think not that this beauty
Is only what others unlucky can see,
O lady of beauty, you are but one,
From within who is visible only to me.
In love restrained I dwelt my days uneasy,
So much in fear was I to love,
And thought I, not without reasons,
That others deserve you more than me,
The complexities in my life that belied
So wonderful a chance of intimacy,
How I missed you but wished
That love one day will blossom for us.
Blemish of an oath misconceived
Dissolved into nothingness-
The cage broke, the falcon fluttered,
The dots of the sky it followed in vigour new-
And really high it flew.
A man without chains, I am but free,
I can now love you more than there’s in me.
-6\12\98,Calcutta-63