Learning from Classics
July 14, 2017
I have always been fascinated by literary classics and have tried to learn from them in my own writing that I hope can be 1% as good as these classics. One of the literary giants is an English writer Tagore (1861-1941) from India. I will copy and paste a conversation between a child and his/her mother that appeals to me, probably also to many from different backgrounds: race/ethnicity, nationality, gender, class, and other aspects because we have the ability to feel and empathize. And I will continue to learn from them how to write literary pieces.
The Beginning
"Where have I come from, where did you pick me up?" the baby asked its mother.
She answered half crying, half laughing, and clasping the baby to her breast -- "You were hidden in my heart as its desire, my darling.
You were in the dolls of my childhood's game; and when with clay I made the image of my god every morning, I made and remade you then.
You were enshrined with our household deity, in his worship I worshipped you.
In all my hopes and my loves, in my life, in the life of my mother you have lived.
In the lap of the deathless spirit who rules our home you have been nursed for ages.
When in girlhood my heart was opening its petals, you hovered as a fragrance about it.
Your tender softness bloomed in my youthful limbs, like a glow in the sky before the sunrise.
Heaven's first darling, twin-born with the morning light, you have floated down the stream of the world's life, and at last you have stranded on my heart.
As I gaze on your face, mystery overwhelms me; you who belong to all have become mine.
For fear of losing you I hold you tight to my breast. What magic has snared the world's treasure in these slender arms of mine?"
