I was not aware of the moment when
I first crossed the threshold of this life.
What was the power that made me
open out into this vast mystery like a
bud in the forest at midnight!
When in the morning I looked upon
the light I felt in a moment that I was
no stranger in this world, that the in-
scrutable without name and form had
taken me in its arms in the form of my
own mother.
Even so, in death the same unknown
will appear as ever known to me. And
because I love this life, I know I shall
love death as well.
The child cries out when from the
right breast the mother takes it away,
in the very next moment to find in the
left one its consolation.
From Gitanjali (Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1913) by Rabindranath Tagore. This poem is in the public domain.