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

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