Beautiful Life Poem – Life is Short, Keep that in Mind and Rejoice

Nothing lasts forever. It is this very fact that lends beauty to life. We treasure our joys and find the strength to lightly bear our sorrows, knowing this great truth. The garden of earth is kept eternally fresh and desirable because death is as much a part of it, as life.

“The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.” — Rabindranath Tagore

NONE lives for ever, brother, and nothing lasts for long. Keep that in mind and rejoice.
Our life is not the one old burden; our path is not the one long journey.
One sole poet has not to sing one aged song.
The flower fades and dies; but he who wears the flower has not to mourn for it for ever.
Brother, keep that in mind and rejoice.

There must come a full pause to weave perfection into music.
Life droops toward its sunset to be drowned in the golden shadows.
Love must be called from its play to drink sorrow and be borne to the heaven of tears. Brother, keep that in mind and rejoice.

We hasten to gather our flowers lest they are plundered by the passing winds.
It quickens our blood and brightens our eyes to snatch kisses that would vanish if we delayed.
Our life is eager; our desires are keen, for time tolls the bell of parting.
Brother, keep that in mind and rejoice.

There is not time for us to clasp a thing and crush it and fling it away to the dust.
The hours trip rapidly away, hiding their dreams in their skirts.
Our life is short; it yields but a few days for love.
Were it for work and drudgery it would be endlessly long.
Brother, keep that in mind and rejoice.

Beauty is sweet to us, because she dances to the same fleeting tune with our lives.
Knowledge is precious to us, because we shall never have time to complete it.
All is done and finished in the eternal Heaven.
But earth’s flowers of illusion are kept eternally fresh by death.
Brother, keep that in mind and rejoice.

A beautiful poem about life, by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), one of the world’s greatest literary geniuses, whose writings provide a glimpse into the spiritual beauty of India.

Mahatma Gandhi reverently called him “Gurudev” – a teacher embodying God-like knowledge. Tagore’s breathtaking literary works, many of which can be freely downloaded from our website, are a must read, for any seeker of spiritual wisdom. This life poem has been taken from his book The Gardener.

“We famish our lives while we are busy pursuing chimerical impossibilities. One of the many suppressed longings which cry after fulfillment is for neglected joys within reach. The emptiness left by easy joys untasted, is ever growing in my life. And could I but have the past back, I would strive no more after the unattainable, but drain to the full these little, unsought, everyday joys which life offers.”
– Rabindranath Tagore

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