Retirement Quotes: The End of a Chapter Heralds the Beginning of a New One
Sunday July 12, 2009
Everyone who has his nose to the grindstone knows what it feels like to be relieved from the drudgery of work. But come retirement, and a new chapter of your life is ready to unfold. What are your retirement plans? Want to go off on a long holiday to the Bahamas? Or do you want to grow tulips in your backyard? Perhaps it is time to let your hair down and enjoy the fruits of labor. Set your heart free with these retirement quotes. Your journey of life has just begun.
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Let me post a poem of Rabindranath Tagore in my translation which may be treated as a poem on retirement, though it was written when the poet was in his late twenties or early thirties. It is included in a collection of mostly humourous poems and was dedicated to one of his closest friends. Here it is -
THE RESIGNED
I have let go of my rudder at last
For I have nothing to chase
And nowhere to reach
And nothing interests me any more.
I walk without any fear and expect no favour
And go places freely neither for profit nor for loss.
If I don’t get a chance to climb up the ladder
I am quite happy with my place at the bottom.
I have let go of my rudder
Now I am happy to be as I like.
I go wherever I please
And accept whatever comes my way
Never scrambling for anything.
Against my choice
I don’t have to be with anybody
Nor do I have to quarrel with anyone.
I keep my counsel to myself alone.
Often have I tried to please myself
By pleasing Tom, Dick and Harry
And by grovelling at the feet of many.
I have banged and begged at many doors
Asking for favour from some
Wasting many unnecessary words.
At long last I have got my recess
My last holiday without an end.
After a long day
Now I want only to play.
No longer shall I bear unbearable burdens
I’ll forget things that I never liked
Returning the broken shackles to its owner
Now I shall stand erect
With a steady head on my shoulders.
Spring has come and gone
But I had no time to enjoy its blessings
I kept myself busy only in gathering.
Now I shall roam about
Giving no thought to anything.
I shall grasp none in passion
But leave everyone to one’s own self.
Cured of the diseases of ego and ambition
I shall be one with everyone.
——————
Transcreation of the poem ‘Udasheen’ from the collection Kshanika by Rabindranath Tagore.