Brahmā, Vişņu, Śiva
I
THE
DARK
In
a
worldless
timeless
lightless
great
emptiness
Four-faced
Brahma
broods.
nasad
asin,
no
sad
asit
tadanim;
nasid
raja
no
vioma
paro
yat.
kim
avarivah?
kuha?
kasya
sarmann?
Ambhah
kim
asid,
gahanam
gabhiram?
na
mytur
asid,
amrtam
na
tarhi.
na
ratria
ahna
asit
pratekh.
anid
avatam
svadhaya
tad
ekam.
tasmad
dhanyan
na
parah
kim
canasa.
tama
asit
tamasa
gudham
agre;
apraketam
salilam
sarvam
a
idam.
tuchyenabhu
apihitam
yad
asit,
tapasas
tan
mahinajayataikam.
Of
a
sudden
sea
of
joy
surges
through
his
heart
–
The
ur-god
opens
his
eyes.
Speech
from
four
mouths
Speeds
from
each
quarter.
Through
infinite
dark,
Through
limitless
sky,
Like
a
growing
sea-storm,
Like
hope
never
sated,
His
Word
starts
to
move.
Stirred
by
joy
his
breathing
quickens,
His
eight
eyes
quiver
with
flame.
His
fire-matted
hair
sweeps
the
horizon,
Bright
as
a
million
suns.
From
the
towering
source
of
the
world
In
a
thousand
streams
Cascades
the
primeval
blazing
fountain,
Fragmenting
silence,
Splitting
its
stone
heart.
kamas
tad
agre
sam
avartatadhi
manaso
retah
prathamam
yad
asit?
sato
bandhum
asati
nir
avindan
hrdi
pratisya
kavayo
manisa
II
THE
MUSIC
In
a
universe
rampant
With
new
life
exhalant,
With
new
life
exultant,
Vishnu
spreads
wide
His
four-handed
blessing.
He
raises
his
conch
And
all
things
quake
At
its
booming
sound.
The
frenzy
dies
down,
The
furnace
expires,
The
planets
douse
Their
flames
with
tears,
The
world’s
Divine
Poet
Constructs
its
history,
From
wild
cosmic
song
Its
epic
is
formed.
Stars
in
their
orbits,
Moon
sun
and
planets
–
He
binds
with
his
mace
All
things
to
Law,
Imposes
the
discipline
Of
metre
and
rhyme.
In
the
Manasa
depths
Vishnu
watches
-
Beauties
arise
From
the
light
of
lotuses.
Lakshmi
strews
smiles
-
Clouds
show
a
rainbow,
Gardens
show
flowers.
The
roar
of
Creation
Resolves
into
music.
Softness
hides
rigour,
Forms
cover
power.
tirascino
vitato
rasmir
esam:
adhah
svid
asid,
upari
svid
asit?
retodha
asan,
mahimana
asan;
svadha
avasat,
prayatih
parastat.
Age
after
age
after
age
is
slave
to
a
mighty
rhythm
–
At
last
the
world-frame
Tires
in
its
body,
Sleep
in
its
eyes
Slackens
its
structure,
Diffuses
its
energy.
From
the
heart
of
all
matter
Comes
the
anguished
cry
–
‘Wake,
wake,
great
Shiva,
Our
body
grows
weary
Of
its
law-fixed
path,
Give
us
new
form.
Sing
our
destruction,
That
we
gain
new
life.’
III
THE
FIRE
The
great
god
awakes,
His
three
eyes
open,
He
surveys
all
horizons.
He
lifts
his
bow,
his
fell
pinaka,
He
pounds
the
world
with
his
tread.
From
first
things
to
last
it
trembles
and
shakes
And
shudders.
The
bonds
of
nature
are
ripped.
The
sky
is
rocked
by
the
roar
Of
a
wave
of
ecstatic
release.
An
inferno
soars
–
The
pyre
of
the
universe.
Shattered
sun
and
moon,
smashed
stars
and
planets,
Rain
down
from
all
angles,
A
blackness
of
all
particles
To
be
swallowed
by
flame,
Absorbed
in
an
instant.
At
the
start
of
Creation
There
was
a
dark
without
origin,
At
the
breaking
of
Creation
There
is
fire
without
end
In
an
all-pervading
sky-engulfing
sea
of
burning
Shiva
shuts
his
three
eyes.
He
begins
his
great
trance.
ko
adha
veda?
Ka
iha
pravocat,
kuta
ajata,
kuta
iyam
visrstih?
arvag
deva
asya
visajanena:
atha
ko
veda
yata
ababhuva?
iyam
visrstir
yata
ababhuva;
yadi
vasa
dadhe
yadi
van
na:
yo
asyadhyaksah
parame
vioman
so
anga
veda,
yadi
va
na
veda.
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore (born May 7, 1861, Calcutta [now Kolkata], India—died August 7, 1941, Calcutta) Bengali poet, short-story writer, song composer, playwright, essayist, and painter who introduced new prose and verse forms and the use of colloquial language into Bengali literature, thereby freeing it from traditional models based on classical Sanskrit. He was highly influential in introducing Indian culture to the West and vice versa, and he is generally regarded as the outstanding creative artist of early 20th-century India. In 1913 he became the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.