‘Chhora or Rhymes’ was written by Rabindranath Tagore in 1941 in Santinketan at his home, Udayan. It was part of a collection called Chhora that was published in the same year.
RHYMES
When idleness hovers
In twilight’s haunts,
A hard day’s work
Draws to a halt,
Scattered whimsies
Float in flocks.
I do not know why
The dream realm calls,
Leaving behind the
Chasms of the day —
Some are filled with sentiments,
Some, run astray —
The flow of these imaginings,
Lost in their own rhythm,
Revel as irrationally as
Crickets’ chirp in unison,
Or dragonflies gather in dusk
To flit spontaneously
Into a weak flame that
Flickers dimly.
In clear light, when I reflect
On those lines,
I wonder if they were written
Intoxicated with wines.
Externally, they seem
To have an obvious sense,
And yet, they seem to conceal
mysteries that are dense.
Thoughts seem to stream, flow,
And drown —
Yet, they do not reveal
From where they come.
They exist I know but the rest
Is obscured by darkness —
The game is on to tie one
With another in coherence.
Congruity gives meaning.
But they break these constraints,
And in an ecstatic frenzy,
Dance in emptiness, unrestrained.
This poem has been translated by Mitali Chakravarty with editorial input by Sohana Manzoor
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