It is the pang of separation that spreads
throughout the world and gives birth
to shapes innumerable in the infinite sky.
It is this sorrow of separation that
gazes in silence all night from star to
star and becomes lyric among rustling
leaves in rainy darkness of July.
It is this overspreading pain that
deepens into loves and desires, into
sufferings and joys in human homes;
and this it is that ever melts and flows
in songs through my poet's heart.
From Gitanjali (Macmillan and Company, 1916) by Rabindranath Tagore. This poem is in the public domain.