Waking

By Kalidasa
(350? - 430?)

English version by W. S. Merwin & J. Moussaieff Masson



Even the man who is happy
glimpses something
or a hair of sound touches him

and his heart overflows with a longing
he does not recognize

then it must be that he is remembering
in a place out of reach
shapes he has loved

in a life before this

the print of them still there in him waiting