IV FROM GREEK AND LATIN Odyssey* BOOK ONE Sing to me, Muse, of the man many-counselled who far through the world's ways Wandering, was tossed after Troya he sacked, the divine stronghold, Many cities of men he beheld, learned the minds of their dwellers, Many the woes in his soul he suffered driven on the waters, Fending from fate his life and the homeward course of his comrades. Them even so he saved not for all his desire and his striving; Who by their own infatuate madness piteously perished, Fools in their hearts! for they slew the herds the deity pastured, Helios high-climbing; but he from them reft their re

MAHABHARATA THE BOOK OF THE ASSEMBLY HALL The Building of the Hall And before Krishna’s face to great Arjoon Maya with clasped hands bending, mild and boon His voice as gratitude’s: “Me the strong ire Had slain of Krishna or the hungry fire Consumed: by thee I live, O Kunti’s son: What shall I do for thy sake?” And Arjoon, “Paid is thy debt. Go thou and prosper: love Repays the lover: this our friendship prove. “Noble thy word and like thyself,” returned The Titan, “yet in me a fire has burned Some deed to do for love’s sake. He am I, The Titan architect and poet high, The m

I Dreamed a Dream* I dreamed a dream, 0 friend.       The wedding was fixed for the morrow. And He, the Lion, Madhava, the young Bull whom they call the master of radiances, He came into the hall of wedding decorated with luxuriant palms. I dreamed a dream, 0 friend.       And the throng of the Gods was there with Indra, the Mind Divine, at their head. And in the shrine they declared me bride and clad me in a new robe of affirmation. And Inner Force is the name of the goddess who adorned me with the garland of the wedding. / dreamed a dream, 0 friend.       There were beatings of the drum and blowings of the conch; and under the canopy hung heavily with st

SONGS  OF  THE  SEA SAGAR  SANGIT  OF  C.  R.  DAS Songs of the Sea 0 thou unhoped-far elusive wonder of the skies,       Stand still one moment! I will lead thee and bind       With music to the chambers of my mind. Behold how calm today this sea before me lies       And quivering with what tremulous heart of dreams       In the pale glimmer of the faint moonbeams. If thou at last art come indeed, 0 mystery, stay Woven by song into my heart-beats from this day. Stand, goddess, yet! Into this anthem of the seas       With the pure strain of my full voiceless heart       Some rhythm of the rhythmless, some part Of the

VIDULA This poem is based on a passage comprising four chapters (Adhyayas) in the Udyog-parva of the Mahabharata. It is not a close translation but a free poetic paraphrase of the subject-matter; it follows closely the sequence of the thoughts with occasional rearrangements, translates freely in parts, in others makes some departures or adds, develops and amplifies to bring out fully the underlying spirit and idea. The style of the original is terse, brief, packed and allusive, sometimes knotted into a pregnant obscurity by the drastic economy of word and phrase. It would have been impossible to pre­serve effectively in English such a style; a looser fullness of expression has been

CHAPTER SIX krishna “Who doeth the works he hath to do but dependeth not on the fruit of his works, he is the Sannyasin, and he is the Yogin, and not he who lighteth not the daily fire and doeth not the daily ritual. Know, O son of Pandou, that what they have called renunciation is even Yoga, since no man becometh a Yogin if he hath not renounced the imaginations of the Will. Of the sage who has yet to ascend the hill of Yoga, works are the medium, but calm is the medium of him who sitteth already on the hill-tops. For when a man has renounced all the imaginings of the Will and his heart clings not to his works and clings not to the objects of the senses, that is the true Sa

Uma* 0 thou inspired by a far effulgence, Adored of some distant Sun gold-bright, 0 luminous face on the edge of darkness Agleam with strange and viewless light! A spark from thy vision's scintillations Has kindled the earth to passionate dreams, And the gloom of ages sinks defeated By the revel and splendour of thy beams. In this little courtyard Earth thy rivers Have made to bloom heaven's many-rayed flowers, And, throned on thy lion meditation, Thou slayest with a sign the Titan powers. Thou art rapt in unsleeping adoration And a thousand thorn-wounds are forgot; Thy hunger is for the unseizable, And for thee the n

CHAPTER FIVE urjoona “Thou declarest the renunciation of works, O Krishna, and again thou declares! Yoga in works. Which one alone of these twain is the better, this tell me clearly, leaving no doubt behind.” krishna “Renunciation of works, or Yoga in works, both of them make for the soul’s highest welfare, but of these two Yoga in works is distinguished above renunciation of works. Know him for the perpetual Sannyasin, who neither hates nor desires aught, for the mind that rises above the dualities, O strong-armed, is easily and happily released from its bondage. It is children who talk of Sankhya and Yoga as distinct and different, and not the learned; he who cl

ON PRIDE AND HEROISM Lion-Heart The maned lion, first of kingly names, Magnanimous and famed, though worn with age, Wasted with hunger, blunted his keen edge – And low the splendid spirit in him flames, Not therefore will with wretched grass assuage His famished pangs as graze the deer and bull. Rather his dying breath collects desire, Leaping once more from shattered brows to pull Of the great tusked elephants mad with ire His sovereign banquet fierce and masterful. The Way of the Lion The dog with a poor bone is satisfied, Meatless, with bits of fat and sinew greased, Nor is his hunger with such r

ANANDAMATH OF BANKIM CHANDRA CHATTERJEE First thirteen chapters only PROLOGUE A wide interminable forest. Most of the trees are Sāls, but other kinds are not wanting. Treetop mingling with treetop, foliage melting into foliage, the interminable lines progress; without crevice, without gap, without even a way for the light to enter, league after league and again league after league the boundless ocean of leaves ad­vances, tossing wave upon wave in the wind. Underneath, thick dark­ness; even at midday the light is dim and uncertain; a seat of terrific gloom. There the foot of man never treads; there, except the illimitable