I cannot remember my mother

I cannot remember my mother,

only sometime in the midst of my play

a tune seems to hover over my playthings,

the tune of some song that she used to

hum while rocking my cradle.

I cannot remember my mother

but when in the early autumn morning

the smell of the shiuli flowers floats in the air,

the scent of the morning service in the

temple comes to me as the scent of my mother.

I cannot remember my mother

only when from bedroom window

I send my eyes into the blue of the distant sky,

I feel that the stillness of my mother's gaze on my face

has spread all over the sky.

  --- Rabindranath Tagore