"Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf"
About this Quote
“Dance on the edges of Time” frames existence as choreography rather than conquest. Edges imply limits: you can’t step outside time, you can only move with awareness of its drop-off. The dance suggests grace under constraint, a kind of disciplined ease. Tagore’s intent is less “be carefree” than “stop gripping.” The subtext is a critique of ambition when it hardens into possession - of days, of outcomes, of the self.
Context sharpens the stakes. Writing out of late-colonial Bengal, Tagore watched industrial modernity and imperial bureaucracy impose clocks, schedules, and a transactional worldview on lived experience. His work often answers that pressure with a spiritual aesthetic: not withdrawal from the world, but a gentler mode of inhabiting it, rooted in nature and attention. Dew is almost aggressively modest: not a monument, not a legacy, just a brief glint. The line argues that meaning doesn’t require permanence; it can be as real as a moment that refuses to be pinned down.
Quote Details
| Topic | Live in the Moment |
|---|---|
| Source | Verified source: The Gardener (Rabindranath Tagore, 1915)
Evidence: Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf. (Poem 45 ("To the guests that must go..."); p. 81 in the Wikisource djvu scan (Page:The_Gardener.djvu/95)). This line appears in Rabindranath Tagore’s own translated work, in the English-language book/collection "The Gardener" as part of poem/section 45, often titled/incipited "To the guests that must go bid God's speed...". The Wikisource page is a scan-backed transcription showing the line on the printed page (p. 81 in that edition’s pagination). Many quote sites incorrectly cite other works (e.g., "Stray Birds"), but the primary-text match for this exact wording is in "The Gardener" poem 45. Other candidates (1) 7 Lessons for Living from the Dying (Dr. Karen Wyatt, 2020) compilation95.0% ... Let your life lightly dance on the edges of time like dew on the tip of a leaf.” Rabindranath Tagore If you spend... |
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Tagore, Rabindranath. (2026, February 9). Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/let-your-life-lightly-dance-on-the-edges-of-time-9731/
Chicago Style
Tagore, Rabindranath. "Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf." FixQuotes. February 9, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/let-your-life-lightly-dance-on-the-edges-of-time-9731/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf." FixQuotes, 9 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/let-your-life-lightly-dance-on-the-edges-of-time-9731/. Accessed 22 Feb. 2026.











