Poem No 50
I HAD GONE a-begging from door to door in the village path, when thy golden chariot appeared in the distance like a gorgeous dream and I wondered who was this King-of all kings!
My hopes rose high and methought my evil days were at an end, and I stood waiting for alms to be given unasked and for wealth scattered on all sides in the dust.
The chariot stopped where I stood. Thy glance fell on me and thou camest down with a smile. I felt that the luck of my life had come at last Then of a sudden thou didst hold out thy right hand and say 'What hast thou to give to me?'
Ah, what a kingly jest was it to open thy palm to a beggar to beg! I was confused and stood undecided, and then from my wallet I slowly took out the least little grain of corn and gave it to thee.
But how great my surprise when at the day's end I emptied my bag on the floor to find a least little grain of gold among the poor heap. I bitterly wept and wished that I had had the heart to give thee my all.
“ I read Rabindranath every day, to read one line of his is to forget all the troubles of the world.” No exaggeration is there in this comment of a Rabindra-lover. All the 103 verses of ‘Song Offerings’ are enchanting , edifying and soul inspiring. Poem number 50 is the prose translation of the Bengali poem entitled ‘‘Kripan” (Miser) included if the collection of poems named “Kheya” written by the Nobel Laureate Ranindrnath Tagore, the pride of Bengal.
Summary of the poem : One day the beggar-poet was wandering
from door to door in a village path
collecting alms as usual. All of a sudden, a golden chariot came to his
view at some distance like a ‘gorgeous dream’ and the mendicant wondered that
‘King of all kings’ must be inside the chariot.
Culmination of the beggar’s hope was quite natural and he thought that
his evil days, the days of penury and
uncertainty, must end from that moment. He stood waiting for charity that would
be given to him unasked and also
expected that such an opulent person must scatter wealth on all sides of the
path for the have-nots.
The golden chariot stopped before the mendicant. With a captivating glance and fascinating smile the owner of the chariot got down with pleasant steps and approached to the beggar-poet who started thinking that it was the last moment of catching good luck. At such ecstatic moment the royal owner held out his right hand to the beggar saying “What hast thou to give to me?” The beggar-poet thought that It was nothing but a ‘kingly jest’ ; otherwise, the royal owner could not beg from a beggar. The beggar was at a loss and stood still doing nothing for a few moments but he had to respond. unenthusiastically the beggar took a little grain of corn from his wallet and handed it to the royal beggar. Thus ended the uneventful day in an ironic way.
At the day’s end a great surprise was waiting for the beggar-poet. When he emptied his wallet on the floor to measure the day’s collection, he became flabbergasted as a ‘grain of gold’ was sparkling in his poor collection. He realized that the ‘grain of corn’ returned as the ‘grain of gold’ in his alms. The mendicant wept bitterly and then wished that he should have had a mind to give his all to the royal beggar.
Analytical Study Of the poem : The poem No. 50 of Gitanjali is an allegorical poem which contains a surprising story of a beggar told in an interesting way. It is not merely the story of an unknown beggar, it is the story of every man who has to face the puzzling situation in life like the beggar-poet of this poem. The beggar symbolizes human being who is miserly by nature. The miser man only wants and wants, he is not ready to give anything. If the occasion compels him to give anything, he gives the least little part of his wealth reluctantly. Sometimes man has to undergo some ordeal or acid test which he can not realize. God, our supreme father, sometimes appears in earthly shape to test us, to test our humane properties. Human beings, the source of all supreme values, the mine of all sublime qualities, are gradually corrupted in this world with many a subhuman nature, the seven deadly sins of this world. Naturally, in almost all cases man fails to go through the divine trial. For his selfish and covetous nature, man loses heavenly gift and the grace of God. God’s revelation is not uncommon and we have to confront God’s test any time unexpectedly like the beggar of this poem.
The king of all kings, God himself, is a universal and eternal giver. He gives us everything to make our life happy, comfortable and meaningful. Sometimes God suddenly seeks something from man. Being the owner of all wealth of this world God demands no wealth or money from us. What he seeks from us are love and devotion, our total surrender to him. When we offer anything to God earnestly, God makes no late to return it making thousandfold like the grain of little gold in the poor collection of the mendicant. If we show our close-fisted nature to God, if we deal with him in material value, if we lack spirituality, we have to weep bitterly like the beggar-poet. In this poem, we find the story of a beggar and the story of mankind behind it. There is an apparent meaning and other deep meaning is found beneath the literal one. For this feature this is obviously an allegorical poem.
Deep philosophical meaning of this poem can not be ruled out. One day’s incident of the beggar’s life may be equated to the purport of the whole life of a man. The beggar’s experience cautions us so that we can lead our life scrupulously and judiciously. We have to pay for everything in our life, we can not avoid ‘Karma’. Like the beggar’s day, man starts his life quite normally. Uncertainty, confusion, indecision, bewilderment, amazement and other deciding factors come before a man. Like the beggar man has to take many decisions in his life. If man becomes confused and stands undecided like the helpless beggar at the ultimate moment and makes some blunder, he has to weep in his old days, no second chance for rectification and amendment comes in this life. In C.G.Rossetti’s word “Of labour you shall find the sum.” (Uphill). One is rewarded in life as per one’s activities. This philosophy of human life is soaked with religious values and ideas. So, this is a religious poem also.
