The Birth of the War-God cANTO one : second rendering A God concealed in mountain majesty Embodied to our cloudy physical sight In snowy summits and green-gloried slopes, To northward of the many-rivered land, Measuring the earth in an enormous ease, Immense Himaloy dwells1 and in the moan Of eastern ocean and in western floods Plunges his giant sides. Him once the hills Imagined as the mighty calf of Earth When the wideness milked her udders; gems brilliant-rayed Were born and herbs on every mountain marge. So in his infinite riches is he dressed, Not all his snows can slay his opulence, And though they chill the fe

K A L I D A S KUMARASAMBHAVA THE BIRTH OF THE WAR-GOD Three Renderings canto ONE: first rendering   1 A God mid hills northern Himaloy rears His snow-piled summits' dizzy majesties, And in the eastern and the western seas He bathes his giant sides; lain down appears Measures the dreaming earth in an enormous ease. 2 Him, it is told, the living mountains made A mighty calf of earth, the mother large, When Meru of that milking had the charge By Prithu bid, and jewels brilliant-rayed Were brightly born and herbs on every mountain marge. 3 So is he in his

CHAPTER THREE urjoona O “If indeed to Thy mind Thought is mightier than action, O Janardan, vexer of the host, wherefore then dost thou yoke me to a dark and fearful deed? ‘Tis as if thou wouldst bewilder me with mixed and tangled speech, therefore speak decidedly one clear thing which shall guide me to my highest welfare.” krishna                              “Two are the ways of devotion in this world; already have I declared it to thee, O sinless one: the devotion of the men of the Sankhyas is by single­ness in knowledge, by singleness in works is the devotion of the men of Yoga. Not by refraining from works shall a man taste actionlessness, and not by renounci

SELECTED POEMS OF JNANADAS Selected Poems of Jnanadas The soul, as yet divided from the Eternal, yet having caught a glimpse of his intoxicating beauty grows passionate in remem­brance and swoons with the. sensuous expectation of union. 0 beauty meant all hearts to move! 0 body made for girls to kiss! In every limb an idol of love, A spring of passion and of bliss. The eyes that once his beauty see, Poor eyes! can never turn away, The heart follows him ceaselessly Like a wild beast behind its prey. Not to be touched those limbs, alas! They are another’s nest of joy. But ah their natural loveliness! Ah Go

To Lesbia ‡ 0 my Lesbia  let us live for loving, Suns can set and return to light the morrow, We when once has sunk down the brief light of living One long night must be slept and slept for ever. Give me kisses a thousand, then a hundred, One more thousand again, again a hundred, Many thousands of kisses, crowding hundreds — Kisses numberless like to sands on sea-shore, Burning Libya's sands in far Cyrene. Then the thousands confound and mix the hundred Lest some envious Fate or eye discover The reckoning of our love and kisses.         ‡Catullus Page - 411

SELECTED POEMS OF HORU THAKUR Selected Poems of Horu Thakur The soul beset by God -wishes to surrender itself. Who is this with smeared limbs Of sandal wreathed with forest blossom. For a beauty in him gleams Earth bears not on her mortal bosom. He his hair with bloom has crowned, And many bees come murmuring, swarming. Who is he that with sweet sound Arrests our feet, our hearts alarming? Daily came I to the river, Daily passed these boughs of blessing, But beneath their shadow never Saw such beauty heart-caressing. Like a cloud yet moist with rain His hue is, robe of masqu

Facsimile of translation of Didyapati's song, page 235 I FROM SANSKRIT RAMAYANA

A Rose of Women † Now lilies blow upon the windy height, Now flowers the pansy kissed by tender rain, Narcissus builds his house of self-delight And Love's own fairest flower blooms again; Vainly your gems, 0 meadows, you recall; One simple girl breathes sweeter than you all. †Meleager Page - 411

CHAPTER TWO To him thus besieged with pity and his eyes full bewildered with crowding tears, to him weak with sorrow, Madhusudan spake this word. KRISHNA “Whence hath this stain of darkness come upon thee in the very crisis and the stress, O Urjoona. this weakness unheavenly, inglorious, beloved of un-Aryan minds ? Fall not into coward impotence, O Partha; not on thee does that sit well; fling from thee the miserable weakness of thy heart, O scourge of thy foes.”                         urjoona “How shall I combat Bhishma in the fight and Drona, O Madhusudan. how shall I smite with arrows those venerable heads? Better were it, not piercing these great

BHAGAVAD GITA CHAPTER ONE dhritarashtra In the holy field, the field of the Kurus, assembled for the fight, what did my children, O Sunjoy, what did Pandu’s sons? sun joy Then the king, even Duryodhan, when he beheld the Pandav army mar­shalled in battle array, approached the master and spoke this word. “Behold, O Master, this mighty host of the sons of Pandou by Drupad’s son, thy wise disciple, marshalled in battle array. There are their heroes and great bowmen, like unto Bhema and Urjoona in war, Yuyudhana and Virata and Drupad, the mighty warrior, Dhristaketou and Chekitana and Kashi’s heroic king; and Pourujit, Coontybhoj and Shalvya,