When I bring to you colored toys, my child,

I understand why there is such a play of colors on clouds, on water,

and why flowers are painted in tints

—-when I give colored toys to you, my child.

When I bring to you colored toys, my child,

I understand why there is such a play of colors on clouds, on water,

and why flowers are painted in tints

—-when I give colored toys to you, my child.

 

When I sing to make you dance

I truly know why there is music in leaves,

and why waves send their chorus of voices to the heart of the listening earth

—-when I sing to make you dance.

 

When I bring sweet things to your greedy hands

I know why there is honey in the cup of the flowers

and why fruits are secretly filled with sweet juice

—-when I bring sweet things to your greedy hands.

 

When I kiss your face to make you smile, my darling,

I surely understand what pleasure streams from the sky in morning light,

and what delight that is that is which the summer breeze brings to my body

—-when I kiss you to make you smile.

 

 

India, 1861-1941

From Gitanjali, Translator W.B. Yeats