Beauty is truth’s smile when she beholds her own face in a perfect mirror.

Tagore links aesthetic experience to an ethical–metaphysical order: beauty is not merely pleasing appearance but the felt radiance of truth when it is perfectly apprehended. The image of “truth’s smile” suggests that beauty is truth made inviting—an expression or manifestation rather than a separate category. The “perfect mirror” implies a mind, artwork, or moment of perception that reflects reality without distortion; when truth recognizes itself in such clarity, it appears as beauty. The line thus elevates art and contemplation as ways of aligning human perception with deeper reality, while also warning that beauty can be compromised when the “mirror” (our vision, culture, or medium) is flawed.