-51_Bande Mataram (in prose).htm BANDE MATARAM TRANSLATOR’S NOTE It is difficult to translate the National Anthem of Bengal into verse in another language owing to its unique union of sweetness, simple directness and high poetic force. All attempts in this direction have been failures. In order, therefore, to bring the reader unacquainted with Bengali nearer to the exact force of the original, I give the transla­tion in prose line by line. Page– 311 Page– 312 Bande Mataram I bow to thee, Mother, richly-watered, richly-fruited, cool with the winds of the south, dark with the crops of the harvests,

SONGS OF BIDYAPATI Songs of Bidyapati Childhood and youth each other are nearing; Her two eyes their office yield to the hearing. Her speech has learned sweet maiden craft And low not as of old she laughed, Her laughter murmurs. A moon on earth Is dawning into perfect birth. Mirror in hand she apparels her now And asks of her sweet girl-comrades to show What love is and what love does And all shamed delight that sweet love owes. And often she sits by herself and sees Smiling with bliss her breasts’ increase, Her own milk-breasts that, plums at first, Now into golden oranges burst. Day by day Love’s vernal dream

ON FATE Fate Masters the Gods Brihuspathy1 his path of vantage shows, The red disastrous thunder leaves his hand Obedient, the high Gods in burning rows His battled armies make, high heaven’s his fort, Iravath swings his huge trunk for his sport, The Almighty’s guardian favours over him stand; That Indra with these strengths, this lordship proud Is broken by his foes in battle loud. Come then, bow down to Fate. Alas, the vain Heroisms, virtues, toils of glorious man! A Parable of Fate A serpent in a basket crushed despaired, His organs all wi

Love-Mad* The poetic image used in the following verses is characteristically Indian. The mother of a love-stricken girl (symbolising the human soul yearning to merge into the Godhead) is complaining to her friend of the sad plight of her child whom love for Krishna has rendered "mad" — the effect of the "madness^ being that in all things she is able to see nothing but forms of Krishna —, the ultimate Spirit of the universe. The Realisation of God in all things by .the Vision of Divine Love. 1.  Seated, she caresses Earth and cries, "This Earth is Vishnu's"; Salutes the sky and bids us "behold the Heaven He ruleth"; Or standing with tear-filled eyes cries

ON FIRMNESS Gods Cease never from the work thou hast begun Till thou accomplish. Such the great Gods be, Nor paused for gems unknown beneath the Sun, Nor feared for the huge poisons of the sea, Then only ceased when nectar’s self was won. The Man of High Action Happiness is nothing, sorrow nothing. He Recks not of these whom his clear thoughts impel To action, whether little and miserably He fare on roots or softly dine and well, Whether bare ground receive his sleep or bed With smoothest pillows ease his pensive head, Whether in rags or heavenl

UDYOGA PARVA CANTO ONE Let the reciter bow down to Naraian, likewise to Nara the Highest Male, also to our Lady the Muse (Goddess Saraswati), and thereafter utter the word of Hail! Vaishampayan continueth: But the hero Kurus and who clove .to them thereafter having per­formed joyously the marriage of Abhimanyu rested that night and then at dawn went glad to the Assembly hall of Virata. Now wealthy was that hall of the lord of Matsya with mosaic of gems excellent and perfect jewels, with seats set out, garlanded, perfumed; thither went those great among the kings of men.  Then took their seats in front the two high kings, Drupada and Virata, old they and

The Book of the Wild Forest CANTO ONE* THEN, possessing his soul, Rama entered the great forest, the forest Dundac with difficulty approachable by men and beheld a circle there of hermitages of ascetic men; a refuge for all living things, with ever well-swept courts and strewn with many forms of beasts and swarming with companies of birds and holy, high and temperate sages graced those homes. The high of energy approached them unstringing first his mighty bow and they beholding him like a rising moon with wonder in their looks gazed at the fabric of his beauty and its glory and softness and garbed grace and at Vaidehie too with unfailing eyelids they

-05_A Mother's Lament.htm A Mother’s Lament* “Hadst thou been never born, Rama, my son, Born for my grief, I had not felt such pain, A childless woman. For the barren one Grief of the heart companions, only one, Complaining, ‘I am barren’; this she mourns, She has no cause for any deeper tears. But I am inexperienced in delight And never of my husband’s masculine love Had pleasure, — still I lingered, still endured Hoping to be acquainted yet with joy. Therefore full many unlovely words that strove To break the suffering heart had I to hear From wives of my husband, I the Queen and highest, From lesser women. Ah, what greater pain Than th