Rabindranath Tagore's poem "The Gift" explores the theme of generational gap and unconditional love. The poet reflects on the transience of life and the inability to hold on to love, which is destined to slip away in time.
Despite the awareness that lives will separate, Tagore expresses the desire to leave a mark of love in the heart of the recipient, while recognizing that new generations follow their own path. A delicate invitation to reflect on the value of relationships and on the memory that survives over time, like a mountain that remembers, while the river flows away.
Slow Life: The Gift
I want to give you something, my child,
because we're drifting
in the current of the world.
Our lives will be separated,
our forgotten love.
But I'm not foolish enough to hope
to buy your heart with my gifts.
Young is your life,
your path, long,
and you drink love in one sip
that we bring you, and you turn around,
and run away from us.
You have your games,
and your playmates.
What's wrong if you don't have the time
to think of us.
We have enough time in old age
to count the past days,
to nourish in the heart
what our hands
have lost forever.
Fast runs the river with a song,
overwhelming all barriers.
But the mountain remains and remembers
and follows him with his love.
Tagore
Automatic translation. We apologize for any inaccuracies. Original article in Italian.
