I loved you with all my body and all my mind,

And today, Maiden, I have brought you my garland of songs.

Many travellers march along the track across my heart.

Some come singing, weaving dreams in glowing music notes.

In some eyes shine the suggestion of tears like the glimmer of pearls.

Some fill the earth with laughter loud and make all glad.

Some conceal their Sorrow and brood silently,

Smouldering with slow wasting fire beneath a speechless calm.

But I wandered on and on and my eyes were full of dreams

Till suddenly, startled, I found you walking by my side.

When did I first feel your trusting hands rest in mine?

Through long summer days and weary sleepless nights,

Through the grey evenings when darkness thickens in the groves,

I went seeking in vain through all my world for you.

I sought you in palaces in far-off lands of dreams:

A golden lotus laughing on the waters of the nectar sea

That kiss the sunlit shores beyond the Tepantar wastes.

I dreamt of you robed in Nilambari blue as sky,

A garland of Gajamati round your slender throat,

Dusky tresses that glow like dark Asharha clouds

In whose depths flash laughters like lightnings bright.

Methought I would find you a princess in charmed sleep

Till I dawned upon your shores and kissed you back to life.

I wove dreams in my heart and went along my way.

In songs I scattered my secrets upon the path.

Some listened and did not hear; others heard

And laughed at me with a vain disdainful laugh.

A few for a moment paused and with kindly eyes

Smiled at me in sympathy: but regardless of them all

I marched on with your Agamani upon my lips.

In the work-a-day world where crowds jostle day and night,

Men and women strive and struggle for their daily bread,

And tears and smiles of many hearts flash and fade,

There in the bend of the city-road I saw you come

In the bright sunlight across the noisy market-place.

The dust of the road clung to your robes, and upon your brow

Burnt the Tilak of disgrace that all pioneer souls

Must suffer in the hands of weak and cowardly minds.

Suddenly you stopped and proudly smiled at me.

I never dreamt I would meet you upon the common road.

But your laughter rang out clear above the din of strife.