Imagine, mother, that you are to stay at home and I am to travel <br />into strange lands. <br />Imagine that my boat is ready at the landing fully laden. <br />Now think well, mother, before you say what I shall bring for <br />you when I come back. <br />Mother, do you want heaps and heaps of gold? <br />There, by the banks of golden streams, fields are full of <br />golden harvest. <br />And in the shade of the forest path the golden champ flower <br />drop on the ground. <br />I will gather them all for you in many hundred baskets. <br />Mother, do you want pearls big as the raindrops of autumn? <br />I shall cross to the pearl island shore. <br />There in the early morning light pearls tremble on the meadow <br />flowers, pearls drop on the grass, and pearls are scattered on the <br />sand in spray by the wild sea-waves. <br />My brother shall have a pair of horses with wings to fly among <br />the clouds. <br />For father I shall bring a magic pen that, without his <br />knowing, will write of itself. <br />For you, mother, I must have the casket and jewel that cost <br />seven kings their kingdom.<br /><br />Rabindranath Tagore<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-merchant/
