The Bengali Book of English Verse/Youth and Age (Prafulla Ranjan Das)

by Prafulla Ranjan Das

Youth and Age.

Do you remember, how one night,
When never rose a star on high,
We stepped into the dubious light
Beneath the silence of the sky,
—You wondered,—so did I!

Your life was of the sun and flower,
But mine was of the autumn leaf,
And we imagined every hour
Would take us farther from our grief,
Forgetting time, the thief!

And yet the thief was on the wing,
And caught me gray—but you, pure white!
And now because life's splendours cling
Unto the freshness of your light,
I wonder, was I right?