Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
From the painting by Gari Melchers.
THE CARESS
“Where did I come from, where did you pick me up?” thebaby asked its mother.
She answered, half crying, half laughing, and clasping thebaby 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 whenwith clay I made the image of my god every morning, I made andunmade you then.
“You were enshrined with our household deity, in his worshipI worshiped you.
“In all my hopes and my loves, in my life, in the life of mymother you have lived.
“In the lap of the deathless spirit, who rules our home, youhave been nursed for ages.
“When, in girlhood, my heart was opening its petals, youhovered as a fragrance about it.
“Your tender softness bloomed in my youthful limbs like aglow in the sky before sunrise.
“Heaven’s first darling, twin-born with the morning light, youhave floated down the stream of the world’s life, and at last youhave stranded on my heart.
“As I gaze on your face mystery overwhelms me; you whobelong to all who have become mine.
“For fear of losing you I hold you tight to my breast. Whatmagic has snared the world’s treasure in these slender arms ofmine?”
From “The Crescent Moon” (child poems), by RabindranathTagore.