On the Nature of Love

From my new favourite author, Rabindranath Tagore, poet Laureate of India, who is soothing my panic, disillusionment, fear and loathing.

The night is black and the forest has no end;
a million people thread it in a million ways.
We have trysts to keep in the darkness,
but where or with whom- of that we are unaware.
But we have this faith- that a lifetime's bliss
will appear any minute, with a smile upon its lips.
Scents, touches, sounds, snatches of songs
brush us, pass us, give us delightful shocks.
Then peradventure there's a flash of lightning:
whomever I see that instant I fall in love with.
I call that person and cry: `This life is blest!
For your sake such miles have I traversed!'
All those others who come close and moved off
in the darkness- I dont know if they exist or not.

-From Chaitali (1896)
Translated from Bengali by Ketaki Kushari Dyson.