Triveni Journal
1927 | 11,233,916 words
Triveni is a journal dedicated to ancient Indian culture, history, philosophy, art, spirituality, music and all sorts of literature. Triveni was founded at Madras in 1927 and since that time various authors have donated their creativity in the form of articles, covering many aspects of public life....
A Fire-Fly is This Mind
Premendra Mitra (Translated from Bengali by Nolini Kanta Gupta)
By PREMENDRA MITRA
(Translated from Bengali by Nolini Kanta Gupta)
A fire-fly is this mind.
Now it flares, now it fades.
It must cross the darkness,
And runs about here and there.
As if a needle of light,
It pierces the mighty curtain.
On an edge of the inner being,
It weaves a fringe of glimmering consciousness.
Even like a lightning flash
In this small bit of my sky,
That too gleams:
Off and on.
A fire-fly is this mind.
And I know it will never receive an answer.
Around lies a blind Night, dark, impenetrable,
Ever dumb.
Within there, as if the spark of a question,
This fire-fly of the mind,
With no reason whatsoever, blooms and withers.
It vainly believes that all existence hangs on it as a flower on its stem.
And yet
There is a secret murmur in the darkness
As creation rows along, dashing and splashing.
To that measure does this fire-fly of the mind
Glimmer–flare and fade,
Seeking an ascension, elsewhere,
Beyond knowing and unknowing.