Projapoti Butterfly by Tagore Translation by Ranu
English: Agraulis vanillae butterfly. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This morning I woke up,
and noticed a gorgeous butterfly on my shelf
its two motionless wings were spread out_
It was silky green with white stripes on its back,
It came in the evening
when it saw the light
all night it thought
where am I
I don’t smell the woods,
the decorated house meant nothing to it.
It is a strange world we are in;
millions of minds
in the same world
know that we are passengers,
striving night and day
we have the same goal
to work for our freedom
in this world.
The butterfly sitting on that book
feels the touch
can see it too;
the truth about the book
is not true to it at all,
in the gloomy darkness.
It recognizes honey
but it will never know the mystery of honey.
It gets its food from floral leaves,
It looks for it daily
because it is greedy
it does not know
beyond greed,
there is indescribable beauty,
which is so dear__
that feeling is far away
from it.
Here I am,
my mind is busy sorting truth.
which cannot be taken away
I am looking for it above and beyond .
What is there
it does not know
that whatever is clear to my mind ,maybe it’s close
here now,right here
I go beyond the limits of my feeling
in search of beauty
its home is in the light
that light is unknown to me.
Sabethville 
Dear Ranu,
Very beautiful poem. Thank you!
All good wishes,
robert
Thank you Robert.
Thank you so much for your generous comment.
Tagore always surprises with the comparisons, a beautiful poem, although I was surprised at the poet’s remark about butterfly’s greed, I thought it was only human prerogative 🙂
I guess Tagore thought of greed because the butterfly spends all its time as we see on a flower.
Thank you Akhtar Bhai.
Regards,
Chaman
All of God’s creatures are greedy to some extent,I guess humans top the list in that department.Thank you Akhtar Bhai.