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They say there are strange pools hidden behind that high bank,

Where flocks of wild ducks come when the rains are over,
and thick reeds grow round the margins where waterbirds lay their eggs;

Where snipes with their dancing tails stamp their tiny
footprints upon the clean soft mud;
Where in the evening the tall grasses crested with white

flowers invite the moonbeam to float upon their waves.

Mother, if you don’t mind, I should like to become the
boatman of the ferryboat when I am grown up.

I shall cross and cross back from bank to bank, and all the boys and
girls of the village will wonder at me while they are bathing.

When the sun climbs the mid sky and morning
wears on to noon,

I shall come running to you, saying, ‘Mother, I am hungry!’

When the day is done and the shadows cower under the trees,
I shall come back in the dusk.

I shall never go away from you into the town to work like father.
Mother, if you don’t mind, I should like to become

the boatman of the ferryboat when I am grown up.

—Rabindranath Tagore
snipes: a bird found in marshes and wet
meadows
crested: (here) decorated
wears: (here) passes in some activity
cower: crouch down in fear

About the poet
Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) was the youngest son of Debendranath Tagore, a leader of the Brahmo
Samaj. Although Tagore wrote successfully in all literary genres, he was first of all, a poet. He is the author
of several volumes of short stories and a number of novels. Besides these, he wrote musical dramas, dance
dramas, essays of all types, travel diaries, and two autobiographies. Tagore also left numerous drawings and
paintings, and songs for which he wrote the music himself. In 1913, Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize for
literature for his work Gitanjali.

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