Selected Poems
of
JNANADAS
I
[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]
O BEAUTY meant all hearts to move!
O 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 arc another’s nest of joy.
But ah their natural loveliness!
Ah God, the dark, the wonderful boy I
His graceful sportive motion sweet
Is as an ornament to earth,
And from his lovely pacing feet
Beauties impossible take birth.
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Catching one look not long nor sure.
One look of casual glory shed,
How many noble maidens pure
Lay down on love as on a bed.
The heart within the heart deep hid
He ravishes; almost in play
One looks,—ere falling of the lid,
Her heart has gone with him away!
Oh if his eyes wake such sweet pain
That even sleep will not forget,
What dreadful sweetness waits me when
Body and passionate body meet.
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II
[The human Spirit has undertaken with Nature its nurse
to cross the deep river of life in the frail and ragged
boat of the human mind and senses; storms
arising it fling itself in terror at the feet
of the divine boatman and offers itself
to him as the price of safety]
AH nurse, what will become of us? This old
And weary, battered boat,
No iron its decrepit planks to hold.
Hardly it keeps afloat.
The solemn deep unquiet awful river
Fathomless, secret, past
All plummet with a wind begins to quiver;
The storm arises fast.
Jamouna leaps into the boat uplifting
A cry of conquering waves;
The boat is tossed, the boat is whirled; the shifting
Large billows part like graves.
The boat hurls down with the mad current fleeing,
Ah pity, oarsman sweet,
I lay myself for payment, body and being
Abandoned at thy feet
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III
[The Eternal replies that the beauty of human souls has driven
out oil care for or art of guidance in the phenomenal world
and unless the latter reveal themselves naked of
earthly desires and gratify his passion, they
must sink in the Ocean of life]
IN vain my hands bale out the waves in leaping,
The boat is drowning, drowning;
A storm comes over the great river sweeping;
Huge billows rise up frowning.
The rudder from my hand is wrenched in shivers,
Death stares in all his starkness.
The boat is tossed and whirled, and the great river’s
Far banks plunge into darkness.
What can I do? Jamouna’s rising, surging
To take us to her clasp,
And the fierce rush of waters hurries urging
The rudder from my grasp-
Never I knew till now, nor any word in
The mouths of men foretold
That a girl’s beauty was too great a burden
For one poor boat to hold.
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Come, make you bare, throw off your robes, each
maiden;
Your naked beauties bring,
Lighten your bodies of their sweets o’erladen;
Then I’ll resume rowing.
Girls, you have made me drunk with milk and sweetness,
You have bewitched my soul,
My eyes can judge no more the wind’s fierce fleetness,
Nor watch the waters roll.
They are fixed in you, they are tangled in your tresses,
They will never turn again.
Where I should see the waves, I see your faces,
Your bosoms, not the rain.
You will not let me live, you are my haters,
Your eyes have caused my death.
I feel the boat sink down in the mad waters,
Down, down the waves beneath.
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IV
SHE. For love of thee I gave all life’s best treasures.
He. For love of thee I left my princely pleasures.
She. For love of thee I roam in woodland ways.
He. For love of thee the snow-white kine I graze.
She. For love of thee I don the robe of blue.
He. For love of thee 1 wear thy golden hue.
She. For love of thee my spotless name was stained.
He. For love of thee my father was disdained. She.
Thy love has changed my whole world into thee.
He. Thy love has doomed mine eyes one face to see.
She. Save love of thee no thought my sense can move.
He. Thee, thee I worship,1 and thy perfect love.
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V
[The divine Soul pities, stays and comforts the human, which
is set to toil in the heat and dust of life by its lord
the world and its elders, the laws and
ways of the world]
NEAT-HERDESS, my star!
What has led to fields so far
The loveliest face and limbs ever created!
Love’s heart cries out beholding all
Thy potent beauty natural;
The world is with thy robe intoxicated.
Rest by me a space,
I will fan thy lovely face,
Lest the sun gaze on it with too much nearness.
Alas, thy little rosy feet,
How canst thou walk upon them, sweet.
My body aches to see their tired fairness.
Elders stone of heart!
They have sent to the mart
Far-distant in their callous greed of earning;
How shall thy own lord long avoid
Lightning whose breast of pity1 void
Endured to send thee through this heat and burning.
Thy soft cheeks that burn
Laughing shyly thou dost turn A
way still, all thy shame fast bosom veiling.
This is no way to sell, sweet maid!
When such divine saleswomen trade,
Honey-sweet words help best their rich retailing.
1. Softness.
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VI
[The divine Soul besets the human as it fares upon
the business of life, adorned and beautiful and
exacts dues of love]
BEAUTIFUL Radha, Caanou dost thou see not
Toll-keeper here, that thou wouldst pass by stealth;
But I have caught thee fast and thou shall go not
Until thou give me toll of all thy wealth.
First thine eyes’ unguent, then thy star vermilion,
For these a million kisses I extort,
Upon thy bosom’s vest I fix two million
And the stringed pearls that with thy bosom sport.
For bracelets fine to these thy small wrists clinging
And jewelled belt three million kisses say,
This red lac on thy feet and anklets bringing
Four million thou hast doomed thy lips to pay.
These thy king asks nor will one jot recall;
These yield me patiently in law’s due course
Or here amidst thy damsels from thy small
Red mouth 1 will extort my dues by force.
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VII
[The human soul, in a moment of rapt excitement
when the robe of sense has fallen from
it, is surprised and seized by the
vision of the Eternal]
I WILL lay bare my heart’s whole flame,
To thee, heart’s sister, yea the whole.
The dark-hued limbs I saw in dream,
To these I have given my body and soul.
It was a night of wildest showers;
Ever incessant and a main
The heavens thundered through the hours,
Outside was pattering of the rain.
Exulting in the lightning’s gleams,
Joyous, I lay down on my bed;
The dress had fallen from my limbs,
I slept with rumours overhead.
The peacocks in the treetops high
Between their gorgeous dances shrilled.
The cuckoo cried exultantly.
The frogs were clamorous in the field;
And ever with insistent chime
The bird of rumour shrieking fled
Amidst the rain, at such a time
A vision stood beside my bed.
He moved like fire into my soul,
The love of him became a part
Of being, and oh his whispers stole
Murmuring in and filled my heart.
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His loving ways, his tender wiles.
The hearts that feel, ah me! so burn
That maidens pure with happy smiles
From shame and peace and honour turn.
The lustre of his looks effaced
The moon, of many lovely moods
He is the master; on his breast
There was a wreath of jasmine buds.
Holding my feet, down on the bed
He sat; my breasts were fluttering birds;
His hands upon my limbs he laid,
He bought me for his slave with words.
O me! his eyebrows curved like bows!
0 me! his panther body bright!
Love from his sidelong glances goes
And takes girls prisoners at sight.
He speaks with little magic smiles
That force a girl’s heart from her breast.
How many sweet ways he beguiles,
I know; they cannot be expressed.
Burning he tore me from my bed
And to his passionate bosom clutched;
I could not speak a word; he said
Nothing, his lips and my lips touched.
My body almost swooned away
And from my heart went fear and shame
And maiden pride; panting I lay;
He was around me like a flame.1
1 And felt him round me like a flam.
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