# LXXX explained — Gitanjali

> Chapter companion for Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore.

## What happens

The poet likens himself to a remnant of an autumn cloud, drifting aimlessly and longing to be merged with the divine sun. He offers his emptiness to be adorned and played with, and accepts that when the divine wishes, he will dissolve into darkness or the purity of morning.

## Themes in this chapter

### The Pain of Separation and Longing

The poet counts months and years separated from the divine, expressing deep longing for union.

### Surrender and Egolessness

The poet offers his fleeting emptiness to be painted, gilded, and eventually dissolved according to divine will.

## Character check-ins

### The Poet

Describes himself as a remnant of a cloud, separated from the divine and longing for union.

### The Divine

Addressed as 'O my sun ever-glorious'; the poet awaits the divine touch to merge with light.

## Key lines

> I am like a remnant of a cloud of autumn uselessly roaming in the sky, O my sun ever-glorious!

I am like a leftover autumn cloud drifting aimlessly, O my ever-glorious sun.

_The poet expresses his sense of purposelessness without the divine._

> Thy touch has not yet melted my vapour, making me one with thy light, and thus I count months and years separated from thee.

Your touch has not yet dissolved my vapor into your light, so I measure time in months and years apart from you.

_The poet laments the ongoing separation from the divine._

> If this be thy wish and if this be thy play, then take this fleeting emptiness of mine, paint it with colours, gild it with gold, float it on the wanton wind and spread it in varied wonders.

If this is your desire and your game, then take my transient emptiness, color it, gild it, and let it drift on the wild wind in all kinds of wonders.

_The poet surrenders to the divine's playful will, offering his emptiness to be transformed._

> And again when it shall be thy wish to end this play at night, I shall melt and vanish away in the dark, or it may be in a smile of the white morning, in a coolness of purity transparent.

And when you wish to end this play at night, I will dissolve into the darkness, or perhaps into the smile of the white morning, in a transparent coolness of purity.

_The poet accepts his eventual dissolution into the divine, whether in darkness or light._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/gitanjali_se/chapters/lxxx
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/gitanjali_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/gitanjali_se/chapters