THIS DAY WILL PASS
I know this day will pass,
This day will pass—[2]
That one day, some day,
The dim sun with tender smiling
Will look in my face,
Looking his last farewell.
Beside the way the flute will sound,
The kine will graze on the river-bank,
The children will play in the courtyards,
The birds will sing on.
Yet this day will pass,
This day will pass.
This is my prayer,
My prayer to Thee:
That ere I go I may learn
Why the green Earth,
Lifting her eyes to the sky,
Called me to her;
Why the silence of the Night
Told me of the stars,
Why the Day’s glory
Raised waves in my soul.
This is my prayer to Thee.
When Earth’s revolutions
For me are ended,
In the finishing of my song
Let me pause a moment,
That I may fill my basket
With the flowers and fruits of the Six Seasons;[3]
That in the light of this life
I may see Thee in going,
That I may garland Thee in going
With the garland from my own throat—
When Earth’s revolutions for me are ended.
URVASI[4]
Thou art not Mother, art not Daughter, art not Bride!
Thou beautiful, comely One,
O Dweller in Paradise, Urvasi!
When Evening descends on the pastures, drawing about her tired body her golden cloth,
Thou lightest the evening lamp within no home.
With hesitant, wavering steps, with throbbing breast and downcast look,
Thou dost not go, smiling, fearful, to any belovèd’s bed,
In the hushed midnight.
Like the rising Dawn, thou art unveiled,
Unshrinking One!
Like some stemless flower, blooming in thyself,
When didst thou blossom, Urvasi?
That primal Spring, thou didst arise from the churning of Ocean,[5]
In thy right hand nectar, venom in thy left.
The swelling, mighty Sea, like a serpent tamed with spells,
Drooping his thousand, towering hoods,
Fell at thy feet!
White as the kunda[6] blossom, a naked beauty, adored by the King of Gods,
Thou flawless One!
Wast thou never bud, never maiden of tender years,
O eternally youthful Urvasi?
Sitting alone, under whose dark roof
Didst thou know childhood’s play, toying with gems and pearls?
At whose side, in some chamber lit with the flashing of gems,
Lulled by the chant of the sea-waves, didst thou sleep, in coral bed,
A smile on thy pure face?
That moment when thou awakedst into the universe, thou wast framed of youth,
In full-blown beauty!
From age to age thou hast been the world’s beloved,
O unsurpassed in loveliness, Urvasi!
Breaking their meditation, sages lay at thy feet the fruits of their penance;
Smitten with thy glance, the three worlds[7] grow restless with youth;
The blinded winds blow thine intoxicating fragrance around;
Like the black bee, honey-drunken, the infatuated poet wonders, with greedy heart,
Lifting chants of wild jubilation!
While thou ... thou goest with jingling anklets and waving skirts,
Restless as lightning!
In the assembly of Gods, when thou dancest in ecstasy of joy,
O swaying Wave, Urvasi!
The companies of billows in mid-ocean swell and dance, beat on beat;
In the crests of the corn the skirts of Earth tremble;
From thy necklace stars fall off, in the sky;
Suddenly in the breast of man the heart forgets itself,
The blood dances!
Suddenly in the horizon thy zone bursts,
Ah, wild in abandon!
On the Sunrise Mount of Heaven thou art the embodied Dawn,
O world-enchanting Urvasi!
The slimness of thy form is washed with the tears of the Universe;
The ruddy hue of thy feet is painted with the heart’s blood of the three worlds;
Thy tresses disrobed from their braid, thou hast placed thy light feet,
Thy lotus-feet, on the lotus of the blossomed
Desires of the universe!
Endless are thy masques in the mind’s heaven,
O Comrade of dreams!