The Gardener 11: Come as You Are
The Gardener 11: Come as You Are - meaning Summary
Come Without Adornment
Tagore’s lyric is an urgent, intimate summons asking a beloved to arrive without fuss or adornment. The speaker rejects grooming and ornament as obstacles to presence, invoking damp grass, wind, dark eyes and gathering clouds to stress immediacy and the futility of delay. Natural imagery and weather create a mood of impending change, while repeated refrains comfort the addressee: imperfection and haste are acceptable when love and encounter matter most.
Read Complete AnalysesCome as you are; Do not loiter over your toilet. If your braided hair has loosened, if the parting of your hair be not straight, if the ribbons of your bodice be not fastened, do not mind. Come as you are; Do not loiter over your toilet. Come, with quick steps over the grass. If the raddle come from your feet because of the dew, if the rings of bells upon your feet slacken, if pearls drop out of your chain, do not mind. Come with quick steps over the grass. Do you see the clouds wrapping the sky? Flocks of cranes fly up from the further river-bank and fitful gusts of wind rush over the heath. The anxious cattle run to their stalls in the village. Do you see the clouds wrapping the sky? In vain you light your toilet lamp -- t flickers and goes out in the wind. Who can know that your eyelids have not been touched with lamp - black? For your eyes are darker than rain-clouds. In vain you light your toilet lamp -- it goes out. Come as you are; Do not loiter over your toilet. If the wreath is not woven, who cares; If the wrist-chain has not been linked, let it be. The sky is overcast with clouds -- it is late. Come as you are; Do not loiter over your toilet.
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