Stray Birds By Rabindranath Tagore [translated from Bengali to English by the author] New York: The Macmillan Company, 1916 [Frontispiece in color by Willy Pogány--see pogany-s. Jpg included within the . Zip version of this eBook] ToT. HARAofYokohama 1Stray birds of summer come to my window to sing and fly away. And yellow leaves of autumn, which have no songs, flutter andfall there with a sigh. 2O troupe of little vagrants of the world, leave your footprintsin my words. 3The world puts off its mask of vastness to its lover. It becomes small as one song, as one kiss of the eternal. 4It is the tears of the earth that keep her smiles in bloom. 5The mighty desert is burning for the love of a blade of grass whoshakes her head and laughs and flies away. 6If you shed tears when you miss the sun, you also miss the stars. 7The sands in your way beg for your song and your movement, dancing water. Will you carry the burden of their lameness? 8Her wistful face haunts my dreams like the rain at night. 9Once we dreamt that we were strangers. We wake up to find that we were dear to each other. 10Sorrow is hushed into peace in my heart like the evening amongthe silent trees. 11Some unseen fingers, like idle breeze, are playing upon my heartthe music of the ripples. 12"What language is thine, O sea?" "The language of eternal question. " "What language is thy answer, O sky? "The language of eternal silence. " 13Listen, my heart, to the whispers of the world with which itmakes love to you. 14The mystery of creation is like the darkness of night--it isgreat. Delusions of knowledge are like the fog of the morning. 15Do not seat your love upon a precipice because it is high. 16I sit at my window this morning where the world like a passer-bystops for a moment, nods to me and goes. 17These little thoughts are the rustle of leaves; they have theirwhisper of joy in my mind. 18What you are you do not see, what you see is your shadow. 19My wishes are fools, they shout across thy songs, my Master. Let me but listen. 20I cannot choose the best. The best chooses me. 21They throw their shadows before them who carry their lantern ontheir back. 22That I exist is a perpetual surprise which is life. 23"We, the rustling leaves, have a voice that answers the storms, but who are you so silent?" "I am a mere flower. " 24Rest belongs to the work as the eyelids to the eyes. 25Man is a born child, his power is the power of growth. 26God expects answers for the flowers he sends us, not for the sunand the earth. 27The light that plays, like a naked child, among the green leaveshappily knows not that man can lie. 28O Beauty, find thyself in love, not in the flattery of thymirror. 29My heart beats her waves at the shore of the world and writesupon it her signature in tears with the words, "I love thee. " 30"Moon, for what do you wait?" "To salute the sun for whom I must make way. " 31The trees come up to my window like the yearning voice of thedumb earth. 32His own mornings are new surprises to God. 33Life finds its wealth by the claims of the world, and its worthby the claims of love. 34The dry river-bed finds no thanks for its past. 35The bird wishes it were a cloud. The cloud wishes it were abird. 36The waterfall sings, "I find my song, when I find my freedom. " 37I cannot tell why this heart languishes in silence. It is for small needs it never asks, or knows or remembers. 38Woman, when you move about in your household service your limbssing like a hill stream among its pebbles. 39The sun goes to cross the Western sea, leaving its lastsalutation to the East. 40Do not blame your food because you have no appetite. 41The trees, like the longings of the earth, stand a-tiptoe to peepat the heaven. 42You smiled and talked to me of nothing and I felt that for this Ihad been waiting long. 43The fish in the water is silent, the animal on the earth isnoisy, the bird in the air is singing, But Man has in him the silence of the sea, the noise of the earthand the music of the air. 44The world rushes on over the strings of the lingering heartmaking the music of sadness. 45He has made his weapons his gods. When his weapons win he isdefeated himself. 46God finds himself by creating. 47Shadow, with her veil drawn, follows Light in secret meekness, with her silent steps of love. 48The stars are not afraid to appear like fireflies. 49I thank thee that I am none of the wheels of power but I am onewith the living creatures that are crushed by it. 50The mind, sharp but not broad, sticks at every point but does notmove. 51Your idol is shattered in the dust to prove that God's dust isgreater than your idol. 52Man does not reveal himself in his history, he struggles upthrough it. 53While the glass lamp rebukes the earthen for calling it cousin, the moon rises, and the glass lamp, with a bland smile, callsher, "My dear, dear sister. " 54Like the meeting of the seagulls and the waves we meet and comenear. The seagulls fly off, the waves roll away and we depart. 55My day is done, and I am like a boat drawn on the beach, listening to the dance-music of the tide in the evening. 56Life is given to us, we earn it by giving it. 57We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility. 58The sparrow is sorry for the peacock at the burden of its tail. 59Never be afraid of the moments--thus sings the voice of theeverlasting. 60The hurricane seeks the shortest road by the no-road, andsuddenly ends its search in the Nowhere. 61Take my wine in my own cup, friend. It loses its wreath of foam when poured into that of others. 62The Perfect decks itself in beauty for the love of the Imperfect. 63God says to man, "I heal you therefore I hurt, love you thereforepunish. " 64Thank the flame for its light, but do not forget the lampholderstanding in the shade with constancy of patience. 65Tiny grass, your steps are small, but you possess the earth underyour tread. 66The infant flower opens its bud and cries, "Dear World, please donot fade. " 67God grows weary of great kingdoms, but never of little flowers. 68Wrong cannot afford defeat but Right can. 69"I give my whole water in joy, " sings the waterfall, "thoughlittle of it is enough for the thirsty. " 70Where is the fountain that throws up these flowers in a ceaselessoutbreak of ecstasy? 71The woodcutter's axe begged for its handle from the tree. The tree gave it. 72In my solitude of heart I feel the sigh of this widowed eveningveiled with mist and rain. 73Chastity is a wealth that comes from abundance of love. 74The mist, like love, plays upon the heart of the hills and bringsout surprises of beauty. 75We read the world wrong and say that it deceives us. 76The poet wind is out over the sea and the forest to seek his ownvoice. 77Every child comes with the message that God is not yetdiscouraged of man. 78The grass seeks her crowd in the earth. The tree seeks his solitude of the sky. 79Man barricades against himself. 80Your voice, my friend, wanders in my heart, like the muffledsound of the sea among these listening pines. 81What is this unseen flame of darkness whose sparks are the stars? 82Let life be beautiful like summer flowers and death like autumnleaves. 88He who wants to do good knocks at the gate; he who loves findsthe gate open. 84In death the many becomes one; in life the one becomes many. Religion will be one when God is dead. 85The artist is the lover of Nature, therefore he is her slave andher master. 86"How far are you from me, O Fruit?" "I am hidden in your heart, O Flower. " 87This longing is for the one who is felt in the dark, but not seenin the day. 88"You are the big drop of dew under the lotus leaf, I am thesmaller one on its upper side, " said the dewdrop to the lake. 89The scabbard is content to be dull when it protects the keennessof the sword. 90In darkness the One appears as uniform; in the light the Oneappears as manifold. 91The great earth makes herself hospitable with the help of thegrass. 92The birth and death of the leaves are the rapid whirls of theeddy whose wider circles move slowly among stars. 93Power said to the world, "You are mine. The world kept it prisoner on her throne. Love said to the world, "I am thine. " The world gave it the freedom of her house. 94The mist is like the earth's desire. It hides the sun for whomshe cries. 95Be still, my heart, these great trees are prayers. 96The noise of the moment scoffs at the music of the Eternal. 97I think of other ages that floated upon the stream of life andlove and death and are forgotten, and I feel the freedom ofpassing away. 98The sadness of my soul is her bride's veil. It waits to be lifted in the night. 99Death's stamp gives value to the coin of life; making it possibleto buy with life what is truly precious. 100The cloud stood humbly in a corner of the sky. The morning crowned it with splendour. 101The dust receives insult and in return offers her flowers. 102Do not linger to gather flowers to keep them, but walk on, forflowers will keep themselves blooming all your way. 103Roots are the branches down in the earth. Branches are roots in the air. 104The music of the far-away summer flutters around the Autumnseeking its former nest. 105Do not insult your friend by lending him merits from your ownpocket. 106The touch of the nameless days clings to my heart like mossesround the old tree. 107The echo mocks her origin to prove she is the original. 108God is ashamed when the prosperous boasts of His special favour. 109I cast my own shadow upon my path, because I have a lamp that hasnot been lighted. 110Man goes into the noisy crowd to drown his own clamour ofsilence. 111That which ends in exhaustion is death, but the perfect ending isin the endless. 112The sun has his simple robe of light. The clouds are decked withgorgeousness. 113The hills are like shouts of children who raise their arms, trying to catch stars. 114The road is lonely in its crowd for it is not loved. 115The power that boasts of its mischiefs is laughed at by theyellow leaves that fall, and clouds that pass by. 116The earth hums to me to-day in the sun, like a woman at herspinng, some ballad of the ancient time in a forgotten tongue. 117The grass-blade is worth of the great world where it grows. 118Dream is a wife who must talk. Sleep is a husband who silently suffers. 119The night kisses the fading day whispering to his ear, "I amdeath, your mother. I am to give you fresh birth. " 120I feel, thy beauty, dark night, like that of the loved woman whenshe has put out the lamp. 121I carry in my world that flourishes the worlds that have failed. 122Dear friend, I feel the silence of your great thoughts of may adeepening eventide on this beach when I listen to these waves. 123The bird thinks it is an act of kindness to give the fish a liftin the air. 124"In the moon thou sendest thy love letters to me, " said the nightto the sun. "I leave my answers in tears upon the grass. " 125The Great is a born child; when he dies he gives his greatchildhood to the world. 126Not hammerstrokes, but dance of the water sings the pebbles intoperfection. 127Bees sip honey from flowers and hum their thanks when they leave. The gaudy butterfly is sure that the flowers owe thanks to him. 128To be outspoken is easy when you do not wait to speak thecomplete truth. 129Asks the Possible to the Impossible, "Where is your dwellingplace?" "In the dreams of the impotent, " comes the answer. 130If you shut your door to all errors truth will be shut out. 131I hear some rustle of things behind my sadness of heart, --Icannot see them. 132Leisure in its activity is work. The stillness of the sea stirs in waves. 133The leaf becomes flower when it loves. The flower becomes fruit when it worships. 134The roots below the earth claim no rewards for making thebranches fruitful. 135This rainy evening the wind is restless. I look at the swaying branches and ponder over the greatness ofall things. 136Storm of midnight, like a giant child awakened in the untimelydark, has begun to play and shout. 137Thou raisest thy waves vainly to follow thy lover. O sea, thoulonely bride of the storm. 138"I am ashamed of my emptiness, " said the Word to the Work. "I know how poor I am when I see you, " said the Work to the Word. 139Time is the wealth of change, but the clock in its parody makesit mere change and no wealth. 140Truth in her dress finds facts too tight. In fiction she moves with ease. 141When I travelled to here and to there, I was tired of thee, ORoad, but now when thou leadest me to everywhere I am wedded tothee in love. 142Let me think that there is one among those stars that guides mylife through the dark unknown. 143Woman, with the grace of your fingers you touched my things andorder came out like music. 144One sad voice has its nest among the ruins of the years. It sings to me in the night, --"I loved you. " 145The flaming fire warns me off by its own glow. Save me from the dying embers hidden under ashes. 146I have my stars in the sky, But oh for my little lamp unlit in my house. 147The dust of the dead words clings to thee. Wash thy soul with silence. 148Gaps are left in life through which comes the sad music of death. 149The world has opened its heart of light in the morning. Come out, my heart, with thy love to meet it. 150My thoughts shimmer with these shimmering leaves and my heartsings with the touch of this sunlight; my life is glad to befloating with all things into the blue of space, into the dark oftime. 151God's great power is in the gentle breeze, not in the storm. 152This is a dream in which things are all loose and they oppress. I shall find them gathered in thee when I awake and shall befree. 153"Who is there to take up my duties?" asked the setting sun. "I shall do what I can, my Master, " said the earthen lamp. 154By plucking her petals you do not gather the beauty of theflower. 155Silence will carry your voice like the nest that holds thesleeping birds. 156The Great walks with the Small without fear. The Middling keeps aloof. 157The night opens the flowers in secret and allows the day to getthanks. 158Power takes as ingratitude the writhings of its victims. 159When we rejoice in our fulness, then we can part with our fruitswith joy. 160The raindrops kissed the earth and whispered, --"We are thyhomesick children, mother, come back to thee from the heaven. " 161The cobweb pretends to catch dew-drops and catches flies. 162Love! when you come with the burning lamp of pain in your hand, I can see your face and know you as bliss. 163"The learned say that your lights will one day be no more. " saidthe firefly to the stars. The stars made no answer. 164In the dusk of the evening the bird of some early dawn comes tothe nest of my silence. 165Thoughts pass in my mind like flocks of ducks in the sky. I hear the voice of their wings. 166The canal loves to think that rivers exist solely to supply itwith water. 167The world has kissed my soul with its pain, asking for its returnin songs. 168That which oppresses me, is it my soul trying to come out in theopen, or the soul of the world knocking at my heart for itsentrance? 169Thought feeds itself with its own words and grows. 170I have dipped the vessel of my heart into this silent hour; ithas filled with love. 171Either you have work or you have not. When you have to say, "Let us do something, " then beginsmischief. 172The sunflower blushed to own the nameless flower as her kin. The sun rose and smiled on it, saying, "Are you well, mydarling?" 173"Who drives me forward like fate?" "The Myself striding on my back. " 174The clouds fill the watercups of the river, hiding themselves inthe distant hills. 175I spill water from my water jar as I walk on my way, Very little remains for my home. 176The water in a vessel is sparkling; the water in the sea is dark. The small truth has words that are clear; the great truth hasgreat silence. 177Your smile was the flowers of your own fields, your talk was therustle of your own mountain pines, but your heart was the womanthat we all know. 178It is the little things that I leave behind for my loved ones, --great things are for everyone. 179Woman, thou hast encircled the world's heart with the depth ofthy tears as the sea has the earth. 180The sunshine greets me with a smile. The rain, his sad sister, talks to my heart. 181My flower of the day dropped its petals forgotten. In the evening it ripens into a golden fruit of memory. 182I am like the road in the night listening to the footfalls of itsmemories in silence. 183The evening sky to me is like a window, and a lighted lamp, and awaiting behind it. 184He who is too busy doing good finds no time to be good. 185I am the autumn cloud, empty of rain, see my fulness in the fieldof ripened rice. 186They hated and killed and men praised them. But God in shame hastens to hide its memory under the greengrass. 187Toes are the fingers that have forsaken their past. 188Darkness travels towards light, but blindness towards death. 189The pet dog suspects the universe for scheming to take its place. 190Sit still my heart, do not raise your dust. Let the world find its way to you. 191The bow whispers to the arrow before it speeds forth--"Yourfreedom is mine. " 192Woman, in your laughter you have the music of the fountain oflife. 193A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it. 194God loves man's lamp lights better than his own great stars. 195This world is the world of wild storms kept tame with the musicof beauty. 196"My heart is like the golden casket of thy kiss, " said the sunsetcloud to the sun. 197By touching you may kill, by keeping away you may possess. 198The cricket's chirp and the patter of rain come to me through thedark, like the rustle of dreams from my past youth. 199"I have lost my dewdrop, " cries the flower to the morning skythat has lost all its stars. 200The burning log bursts in flame and cries, --"This is my flower, my death. " 201The wasp thinks that the honey-hive of the neighbouring bees istoo small. His neighbours ask him to build one still smaller. 202"I cannot keep your waves, " says the bank to the river. "Let me keep your footprints in my heart. " 203The day, with the noise of this little earth, drowns the silenceof all worlds. 204The song feels the infinite in the air, the picture in the earth, the poem in the air and the earth;For its words have meaning that walks and music that soars. 205When the sun goes down to the West, the East of his morningstands before him in silence. 206Let me not put myself wrongly to my world and set it against me. 207Praise shames me, for I secretly beg for it. 208Let my doing nothing when I have nothing to do become untroubledin its depth of peace like the evening in the seashore when thewater is silent. 209Maiden, your simplicity, like the blueness of the lake, revealsyour depth of truth. 210The best does not come alone. It comes with the company of theall. 211God's right hand is gentle, but terrible is his left hand. 212My evening came among the alien trees and spoke in a languagewhich my morning stars did not know. 213Night's darkness is a bag that bursts with the gold of the dawn. 214Our desire lends the colours of the rainbow to the mere mists andvapours of life. 215God waits to win back his own flowers as gifts from man's hands. 216My sad thoughts tease me asking me their own names. 217The service of the fruit is precious, the service of the floweris sweet, but let my service be the service of the leaves in itsshade of humble devotion. 218My heart has spread its sails to the idle winds for the shadowyisland of Anywhere. 219Men are cruel, but Man is kind. 220Make me thy cup and let my fulness be for thee and for thine. 221The storm is like the cry of some god in pain whose love theearth refuses. 222The world does not leak because death is not a crack. 223Life has become richer by the love that has been lost. 224My friend, your great heart shone with the sunrise of the Eastlike the snowy summit of a lonely hill in the dawn. 225The fountain of death makes the still water of life play. 226Those who have everything but thee, my God, laugh at those whohave nothing but thyself. 227The movement of life has its rest in its own music. 228Kicks only raise dust and not crops from the earth. 229Our names are the light that glows on the sea waves at night andthen dies without leaving its signature. 230Let him only see the thorns who has eyes to see the rose. 231Set bird's wings with gold and it will never again soar in thesky. 232The same lotus of our clime blooms here in the alien water withthe same sweetness, under another name. 233In heart's perspective the distance looms large. 234The moon has her light all over the sky, her dark spots toherself. 235Do not say, "It is morning, " and dismiss it with a name ofyesterday. See it for the first time as a new-born child thathas no name. 236Smoke boasts to the sky, and Ashes to the earth, that they arebrothers to the fire. 237The raindrop whispered to the jasmine, "Keep me in your heart forever. " The jasmine sighed, "Alas, " and dropped to the ground. 238Timid thoughts, do not be afraid of me. I am a poet. 239The dim silence of my mind seems filled with crickets' chirp--thegrey twilight of sound. 240Rockets, your insult to the stars follows yourself back to theearth. 241Thou hast led me through my crowded travels of the day to myevening's loneliness. I wait for its meaning through the stillness of the night. 242This life is the crossing of a sea, where we meet in the samenarrow ship. In death we reach the shore and go to our different worlds. 243The stream of truth flows through its channels of mistakes. 244My heart is homesick to-day for the one sweet hour across the seaof time. 245The bird-song is the echo of the morning light back from theearth. 246"Are you too proud to kiss me?" the morning light asks thebuttercup. 247"How may I sing to thee and worship, O Sun?" asked the littleflower. "By the simple silence of thy purity, " answered the sun. 248Man is worse than an animal when he is an animal. 249Dark clouds become heaven's flowers when kissed by light. 250Let not the sword-blade mock its handle for being blunt. 251The night's silence, like a deep lamp, is burning with the lightof its milky way. 252Around the sunny island of Life swells day and night death'slimitless song of the sea. 253Is not this mountain like a flower, with its petals of hills, drinking the sunlight? 254The real with its meaning read wrong and emphasis misplaced isthe unreal. 255Find your beauty, my heart, from the world's movement, like theboat that has the grace of the wind and the water. 256The eyes are not proud of their sight but of their eyeglasses. 257I live in this little world of mine and am afraid to make it theleast less. Lift me into thy world and let me have the freedomgladly to lose my all. 258The false can never grow into truth by growing in power. 259My heart, with its lapping waves of song, longs to caress thisgreen world of the sunny day. 260Wayside grass, love the star, then your dreams will come out inflowers. 261Let your music, like a sword, pierce the noise of the market toits heart. 262The trembling leaves of this tree touch my heart like the fingersof an infant child. 263This sadness of my soul is her bride's veil. It waits to be lifted in the night. 264The little flower lies in the dust. It sought the path of the butterfly. 265I am in the world of the roads. The night comes. Open thy gate, thou world of the home. 266I have sung the songs of thy day. In the evening let me carrythy lamp through the stormy path. 267I do not ask thee into the house. Come into my infinite loneliness, my Lover. 268Death belongs to life as birth does. The walk is in the raisingof the foot as in the laying of it down. 269I have learnt the simple meaning of thy whispers in flowers andsunshine--teach me to know thy words in pain and death. 270The night's flower was late when the morning kissed her, sheshivered and sighed and dropped to the ground. 271Through the sadness of all things I hear the crooning of theEternal Mother. 272I came to your shore as a stranger, I lived in your house as aguest, I leave your door as a friend, my earth. 273Let my thoughts come to you, when I am gone, like the afterglowof sunset at the margin of starry silence. 274Light in my heart the evening star of rest and then let the nightwhisper to me of love. 275I am a child in the dark. I stretch my hands through the coverlet of night for thee, Mother. 276The day of work is done. Hide my face in your arms, Mother. Let me dream. 277The lamp of meeting burns long; it goes out in a moment at theparting. 278One word keep for me in thy silence, O World, when I am dead, "Ihave loved. " 279We live in this world when we love it. 280Let the dead have the immortality of fame, but the living theimmortality of love. 281I have seen thee as the half-awakened child sees his mother inthe dusk of the dawn and then smiles and sleeps again. 282I shall die again and again to know that life is inexhaustible. 283While I was passing with the crowd in the road I saw thy smilefrom the balcony and I sang and forgot all noise. 284Love is life in its fulness like the cup with its wine. 285They light their own lamps and sing their own words in theirtemples. But the birds sing thy name in thine own morning light, --for thyname is joy. 286Lead me in the centre of thy silence to fill my heart with songs. 287Let them live who choose in their own hissing world of fireworks. My heart longs for thy stars, my God. 288Love's pain sang round my life like the unplumbed sea, and love'sjoy sang like birds in its flowering groves. 289Put out the lamp when thou wishest. I shall know thy darkness and shall love it. 290When I stand before thee at the day's end thou shalt see my scarsand know that I had my wounds and also my healing. 291Some day I shall sing to thee in the sunrise of some other world, "I have seen thee before in the light of the earth, in the loveof man. " 292Clouds come floating into my life from other days no longer toshed rain or usher storm but to give colour to my sunset sky. 293Truth raises against itself the storm that scatters its seedsbroadcast. 294The storm of the last night has crowned this morning with goldenpeace. 295Truth seems to come with its final word; and the final word givesbirth to its next. 296Blessed is he whose fame does not outshine his truth. 297Sweetness of thy name fills my heart when I forget mine--like thymorning sun when the mist is melted. 298The silent night has the beauty of the mother and the clamorousday of the child. 299The world loved man when he smiled. The world became afraid ofhim when he laughed. 300God waits for man to regain his childhood in wisdom. 301Let me feel this world as thy love taking form, then my love willhelp it. 302Thy sunshine smiles upon the winter days of my heart, neverdoubting of its spring flowers. 303God kisses the finite in his love and man the infinite. 304Thou crossest desert lands of barren years to reach the moment offulfilment. 305God's silence ripens man's thoughts into speech. 306Thou wilt find, Eternal Traveller, marks of thy footsteps acrossmy songs. 307Let me not shame thee, Father, who displayest thy glory in thychildren. 308Cheerless is the day, the light under frowning clouds is like apunished child with traces of tears on its pale cheeks, and thecry of the wind is like the cry of a wounded world. But I know Iam travelling to meet my Friend. 309To-night there is a stir among the palm leaves, a swell in thesea, Full Moon, like the heart throb of the world. From whatunknown sky hast thou carried in thy silence the aching secret oflove? 310I dream of a star, an island of light, where I shall be born andin the depth of its quickening leisure my life will ripen itsworks like the ricefield in the autumn sun. 311The smell of the wet earth in the rain rises like a great chantof praise from the voiceless multitude of the insignificant. 312That love can ever lose is a fact that we cannot accept as truth. 313We shall know some day that death can never rob us of that whichour soul has gained, for her gains are one with herself. 314God comes to me in the dusk of my evening with the flowers frommy past kept fresh in his basket. 315When all the strings of my life will be tuned, my Master, then atevery touch of thine will come out the music of love. 316Let me live truly, my Lord, so that death to me become true. 317Man's history is waiting in patience for the triumph of theinsulted man. 318I feel thy gaze upon my heart this moment like the sunny silenceof the morning upon the lonely field whose harvest is over. 319I long for the Island of Songs across this heaving Sea of Shouts. 320The prelude of the night is commenced in the music of the sunset, in its solemn hymn to the ineffable dark. 321I have scaled the peak and found no shelter in fame's bleak andbarren height. Lead me, my Guide, before the light fades, intothe valley of quiet where life's harvest mellows into goldenwisdom. 322Things look phantastic in this dimness of the dusk--the spireswhose bases are lost in the dark and tree tops like blots of ink. I shall wait for the morning and wake up to see thy city in thelight. 323I have suffered and despaired and known death and I am glad thatI am in this great world. 324There are tracts in my life that are bare and silent. They arethe open spaces where my busy days had their light and air. 325Release me from my unfulfilled past clinging to me from behindmaking death difficult. 326Let this be my last word, that I trust in thy love.