Shesher Kabita (The Last Poem)-A deathbed written Novel by Tagore

The Novel was a love story in between Amit Ray & Labannya .

Amit Ray, a barrister educated at Oxford, whose virulent intellectualism reveals itself in its opposition to all forms of tradition. He meets Labanya in a car accident and the romance builds up in the misty hills of Shillong. Amit's iconoclastism meets Labanya's sincere simplicity through a series of dialogues and poems that they write for each other.

After building up their affair and obtaining the blessings of Labanya's employer Jogomaya (Labanya served as Jogomaya's daughter's governess),The lovers decide to marry other suitors, without the air of tragedy. It appears to be that they feel that daily chores of living together will kill the purity of their romance. Amit marries Ketaki, his girlfriend from Oxford and Labanya marries Sovonlal, her friend from university days. But Amit resolves this enigma of ungratified marriage in his own style - "Most barbarians equate marriage with the union, and look upon the real union thereafter with contempt.... Ketaki and I - our love is like water in my kalsi (jug); I fill it each morning, and use it all day long. But Labanya's love is like a vast lake, not to be brought home, but into which my mind can immerse itself". Labanya releases Amit's own submerged depth of sincerity, which he finds hard to adjust to. The struggle makes him a curiously pathetic figure. The tragedy is understood by the girl who releases him from his troth and disappears from his life.

It has been translated into English as ‘The Last Poem’ (translator Anandita Mukhopadhyay) and ‘Farewell song’ (translator Radha Chakravarty).

Here is a quotation of the end poem from ‘The farewell’ :-

Can you hear the sounds of the journey of time?

Its chariot always in a flight

Raises heartbeats in the skies

And birth-pangs of stars

In the darkness of space

Crushed by its wheels.

My friend!

I have been caught in the net

Cast by that flying time

It has made me its mate

In its intrepid journey

And taken me in its speeding chariot

Far away from you.

To reach the summit of this morning

I seem to have left behind many deaths

My past names seem to stream

In the strong wind

Born of the chariot's speed.

There is no way to turn back;

If you see me from afar

You will not recognize me my friend,

Farewell!

If in your lazy hours without any work

The winds of springtime

Brings back the sighs from the past

As the cries of shedding spring flowers

Fill the skies

Please see and search

If in a corner of your heart

You can find any remnants of my past;

In the evening hours of fading memories

It may shed some light

Or take some nameless form

As if in a dream.

Yet it is not a dream

It is my truth of truths

It is deathless

It is my love.

Changeless and eternal

I leave it as my offering to you

In the ever changing flow of time

Let me drift.

My friend, farewell!

You have not sustained any loss.

If you have created an immortal image

Out of my mortal frame

May you devote your self

In the worship of that idol

As the recreation of your remaining days

Let your offerings not be mired

By the touch of my earthly passion.

The plate that you will arrange with utmost care

For the feast of your mind

I will not mix it with anything

That does not endure

And is wet with my tears.

Now you will perhaps create

Some dreamy creation out of my memories

Neither shall I feel its weight

Nor will you feel obliged.

My friend, farewell!

Do not mourn for me,

You have your work, I have my world.

My vessel has not become empty

To fill it is my mission.

I shall be pleased

If anybody keeps waiting

Anxiously for me.

But now I shall offer myself to him

Who can brighten the darkness with light

And see me as I am

Transcending what is good or bad.

Whatever I gave you

It is now your absolute possession.

What I have to give now

Are the hourly offerings from my heart.

You are incomparable, you are rich!

Whatever I gave you

It was but your gift

You made me so much indebted

As much as you took.

My friend, farewell!

A full radio play of Shesher Kabita is available on YouTube. It was performed at the lawn of Sir. P.C. Mitter's heritage house on Elgin Road on 1 April 2012

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