Gitanjali · Chapter
LXI explained
The poet muses on the mysterious origins of a baby's sleep, smile, and freshness, tracing them to a fairy village, a crescent moon's touch, and the mother's youthful love.
What happens
The poet muses on the mysterious origins of a baby's sleep, smile, and freshness, tracing them to a fairy village, a crescent moon's touch, and the mother's youthful love.
Themes in this chapter
Beauty of the Ordinary and Nature
The chapter celebrates the natural, ordinary phenomena of a baby's sleep and smile, linking them to fairy villages, glowworms, moonlight, and dew-washed mornings.
Divine Love and Devotion
The mother's love is portrayed as a tender, silent mystery that pervades her heart, hinting at a divine origin for the baby's freshness.
Characters to notice
- The Poet
The poet reflects on the origins of a baby's sleep, smile, and freshness.
- The Divine
Implied as the source of the mysterious beauty and love pervading the mother's heart.
Key passages
“The sleep that flits on baby’s eyes—does anybody know from where it comes? Yes, there is a rumour that it has its dwelling there, in the fairy village among shadows of the forest dimly lit with glowworms, there hang two timid buds of enchantment.”
The sleep that comes over a baby's eyes—does anyone know its origin? There is a tale that it lives in a fairy village hidden in the forest, where glowworms provide faint light and two shy buds of magic hang.
The poet imagines a mythical origin for the baby's sleep.
“The smile that flickers on baby’s lips when he sleeps—does anybody know where it was born? Yes, there is a rumour that a young pale beam of a crescent moon touched the edge of a vanishing autumn cloud, and there the smile was first born in the dream of a dew-washed morning.”
The smile that appears on a sleeping baby's lips—does anyone know its birthplace? Legend says it was created when a slender moonbeam brushed a fading autumn cloud, giving birth to the smile in the dream of a fresh morning.
The poet attributes the baby's smile to a celestial and natural event.
“The sweet, soft freshness that blooms on baby’s limbs—does anybody know where it was hidden so long? Yes, when the mother was a young girl it lay pervading her heart in tender and silent mystery of love.”
The gentle freshness that appears on a baby's body—does anyone know where it was concealed for so long? It was once hidden in the mother's heart when she was a young girl, filling it with a quiet and tender mystery of love.
The poet connects the baby's freshness to the mother's youthful love.