Serene as the mind of a sage

Where the senses no longer rage,

Straight as the tongue

Of a bell and as long,

Bright as its bronze-note,

From the window-sill,

So secure and so still,

A flame on the Cosmos unwinking doth gloat!

This side the wall

In the hall,

The light

Doth grow dense as it slowly congeals:

Without is the Darkness immense,

So quiet, so tense,

With right

At its heart some sharp light-perpetrated fresh weals.

Hell and Heaven,

Blest, bereaven,

Death and life,

Peace and strife,

Knowledge immense,

Crass ignorance,

–There’s all the difference.

Ah for the vow I’ve ta’en

Not to inflict or e’en

Witness inflicted pain,

Within on the wall

Countless jivas crawl

For light,

And by a hungry lizard crunched

Are quenched

Into night.

As a sucking baby’s choking-fit

Doth into sudden activity burst

A gust–

Beyond the wall Darkness doth chuckle a bit,

In the window the flame in the wind’s grip

Doth shake like one spirit-possessed,

And trembling stands awhile the test,

Then elongating like a rubber-strip,

And elongating snaps the flame.

Within, without

Darkness doth shout

The same...

… … …

… … …

Is it the fallen all-extending knife?

Supervenes a gush of the mystery of life!