Rabindranath Tagore, recipient of the 1913 Nobel Prize for literature, composer of the National Anthems of two countries needs no introduction. Any endeavour of knowing the Bangladeshi heritage or culture will be incomplete without knowing Tagore's work.

Tagore's "fireflies", or brief poems, are revelations of insight and beauty, hymns to love, life, nature and God. Each is rarely more than a sentence long. Here are a few...


I am able to love my God because he gives me freedom to deny him.

Love remains a secret even when spoken for only a lover truly knows that he is loved.

Let your love see me even through the barrier of nearness.

In love I pay my endless debt to thee for what thou art.

Let my love, like sunlight, surround you and yet give you illumined freedom.

Let not my love be a burden on you, my friend, know that it pays itself.