I DREAMT THAT she sat by my head, tenderly ruffling my hair with her fingers, playing the melody of her touch. I looked at her face and struggled with my tears, till the agony of unspoken words burst my sleep like a bubble.
I sat up and saw the glow of the milky way above my window, like a world of silence on fire, and I wondered if at this moment she had a dream that rhymed with mine.

জীবনের দীপে তব
     আলোকের আশীর্বচন
আঁধারের অচৈতন্যে
     সঞ্চিত করুক জাগরণ।

WE CAME hither together, friend, and now at the cross-roads I stop to bid you farewell.
        Your path is wide and straight before you, but my call comes up by ways from the unknown.
I shall follow wind and cloud; I shall follow the stars to where day breaks behind the hills; I shall follow lovers who, as they walk, twine their days into a wreath on a single thread of song, I love.