The Beginning

"WHERE have I come from, where did you pick me up?"
the baby asked its mother.
She answered half crying, half laughing, and clasping
the baby to her breast,-- "You were hidden in my heart
as its desire, my darling. You were in the dolls of my childhood's games; and
when with clay I made the image of my god every
morning, I made and unmade you then.
You were enshrined with our household deity, in his
worship I worshipped you.
In all my hopes and my loves, in my life, in the life
of my mother you have lived.
In the lap of the deathless Spirit who rules our home
you have been nursed for ages.
When in girlhood my heart was opening its petals, you
hovered as a fragrance about it. Your tender softness bloomed in my youthful limbs,
like a glow in the sky before the sunrise.
Heaven's first darling, twin-born with the morning
light, you have floated down the stream of the world's
life, and at last you have stranded on my heart.
As I gaze on your face, mystery overwhelms me; you who
belong to all have become mine.
For fear of losing you I hold you tight to my breast.
What magic has snared the world's treasure in theseslender arms of mine?"


"the crescent moon"-Rabindranath Tagore-