CXXXVII.
Kavi: Hearken, O Mādhava, what more can I say?
Nought can I find to compare with love:
Though the sun of the East should rise in the West,
Yet would not love be far from the worthy,
Or if I should write the stars of heaven on earth,
Or if I could pour from my hands the water of all the sea.
Vidyāpati says: O Shivasimha Rāi,
To abandon the loving is ever unmeet.
CXXXVIII.
Kavi: Frenzied tresses encircling her radiant face—
It is Rāhu desiring the orb of the moon:
Flowers of her hair with her necklace entwined,
As the Jamunā joins with the waters of Gangā.
The twain beyond speech are out of all reason,
The loveling disports with most ardent passion:
Eagerly fair-face kisses love-face,
The bending moon drinks up the lotus.
Her face is adorned with a bead of sweat—
Madan has offered a pearl to the moon:
Long is the necklace that hangs on her breasts—
It is pouring its milk into golden jars.
The chains on her hips are loudly jingling—
Madan is sounding pæans of conquest.
Vidyāpati says: O amorous lady,
Your skill in love's lore surpasses my speech!
END.
NOTES
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
The poems voice the thoughts or represent the spoken words of Rādhā and Krishna, of sakhīs (Rādhā's friends) and dūtikās (messengers of Rādhā or Krishna), and of the poet himself The greater part of the whole is properly dialogue, but inasmuch as the 'audience' is generally silent, we have only thought it necessary to make use of quotation marks where the words of more than one speaker are reported in one and the same song.
The following synonyms of Krishna are used by Vidyāpati: Hari, Mādhava, Kāna, Kānu, Kānta, Kanāi, Murāri, Murali, Banāmali, Shyāma, Vallabha, Giridhara, Gokula-nātha, Nanda-kumara,—and the following of Rādhā: Rādhikā, Rāi.
As regards the use of capitals: 'Love' is so printed when the poet refers to love as a Power (Kāmadeva, Anaʼnga, Pañca-bān, Madan, Manmatha), and 'Desire' is similarly printed with a capital when the reference is to desire as a Power (Rati, the wife of Kāmadeva).
In the use of pronouns refering to Krishna, we have only occasionally printed a capital 'He,'—for though He was God, he appeared to Rādhā as man. We have generally used the colloquial second person plural, in place of the thee and thou of the original, since to reproduce the original would not convey the needed intimacy of the French 'tutoyer': but in few cases it seemed better to adhere to the singular.