Gitanjali 95

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.

Credit

From Gitanjali (Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1913) by Rabindranath Tagore. This poem is in the public domain.