Part Eleven: Blissful Krishna
From long entreaty of the doe-eyed woman,
rich-clothed, Keshava found his arbour bed.
Then on that twilit evening someone went
and to a jewelled and cheerful Rádhá said:
Twentieth Song
To you he offered graceful words
and bowed in reverence to your feet,
and at the border of his thicket bower
awaits you on his loving bed.
Innocent Rádhá, you must follow
as Madhu's foe has followed you.
Firm the haunches and the breast
when borne on slowly-moving steps:
with tinkling, jewelled anklets come
and mimic the Marála bird.
Innocent Rádhá, you must follow
as Madhu's foe has followed you.
Listen to the bees whose hum
intoxicates the lovelorn girls.
Watch as flocks of cuckoo birds
announce the flower-arrowed one.
Innocent Rádhá, you must follow
as Madhu's foe has followed you.
The winds make stir the early leaves,
and thicknesses of creepers urge:
as trunks of elephants now move
in unison those supple thighs.
Innocent Rádhá, you must follow
as Madhu's foe has followed you.
The motion of your breasts betrays
the love god trembling in their swell,
and necklaces in his embrace
are pure, clear water in a stream.
Innocent Rádhá, you must follow
as Madhu's foe has followed you.
All your girlfriends learn how body
arms for passion's joyful fight,
and as the war-drums shake the girdle
roar their passion shamelessly.
Innocent Rádhá, you must follow
as Madhu's foe has followed you.
Artless, clinging to a friend
with a hand of sporting arrows,
go to Hari as your bracelets
tell by tinkling you approach.
Innocent Rádhá, you must follow
as Madhu's foe has followed you.
May Jayadeva's shining words
adorn the mind that's drawn to Hari
as will necklaces of pearls
then blossom round some beauty's throat.
Innocent Rádhá, you must follow
as Madhu's foe has followed you.
* * *
She will look and speak, remembering words;
and clasp my body eagerly, my friend:
but in the arbour's massy darkness, he,
disturbed in thought, can see his lover come:
swelled up with joy, but trembling, sweat and faint.
So women mischievous, who flit in pleasure
with eyes mascara'd, and tamála'd ears: their heads
are wreathed with lotuses and musk their breasts.
My friend: how beautiful are lustrous eyes
and limbs invested with the thicket's shade.
The blackest night is beautiful and thick
with gold when saffron wearing lovers meet.
As though the cavernous Tamála all
around could act as touchstone for the streaks
of loving's probity and find it bright.
Having at the entrance to his thicket
arbour seen a richly jewelled Hari,
the central gem ablaze in pearls, the wealth
of armlet, bracelet, golden girdle string,
to one now bashful so the girlfriend said:
Twenty-first Song
In this charming bower of pleasure,
railing laughter urges love.
Rádhá, enter in to Mádhava.
Let on these soft Tamála leaves
your breasts appear with tumbled pearls.
Rádhá, enter in to Mádhava.
For you whose body is a flower
is massed the flowering in this house.
Rádhá, enter in to Mádhava.
If fearful of the love god's arrows
here are cool Malaya winds.
Rádhá, enter in to Mádhava.
If slow to place your solemn hip
here are creepers soft and thick.
Rádhá, enter in to Mádhava.
To manifest the god of love
the bees are humming at the honey.
Rádhá, enter in to Mádhava.
Like flocks of singing cuckoos flash
the ruby gemstones of your teeth.
Rádhá, enter in to Mádhava.
May meeting Padmávatí be blessed
with happinesses hundreds fold,
so sings the king of poet kings.
Rádhá, enter in to Mádhava.
* * *
Why such agitation? Tired by passion,
he seeks the nectar of your lips, your body's
nearness. At your feet he is a slave
a moment's lifting of your brow has bought.
Delighted are the darting glances
fearfully now given Krishna.
Beautiful, the anklets tinkle
as she gains his hiding place.
Twenty-second Song
On seeing Rádhá's blossoming, his looks
were sea in ecstasy when moon appears.
Hari's whole becoming spoke his joy
at her now going to the love god's house.
Far off she saw the pearls on Hari's chest
as foam that rises on the Yamuná.
Hari's whole becoming spoke his joy
at her now going to the love god's house.
Dark and soft the body with a saffron robe
as pollen round the dark blue lotus root.
Hari's whole becoming spoke his joy
at her now going to the love god's house.
His loving glances shook his cheeks as will
two wagtails lotus in an autumn pond.
Hari's whole becoming spoke his joy
at her now going to the love god's house.
His lotus face had earrings like the sun,
and lips that glittered splendidly with love.
Hari's whole becoming spoke his joy
at her now going to the love god's house.
As moon through clouds appeared his flower-strewn hair,
and lofty lunar disk his sandal mark.
Hari's whole becoming spoke his joy
at her now going to the love god's house.
A long time bristling with the play of love,
a body moonbeam-radiant with its jewels.
Hari's whole becoming spoke his joy
at her now going to the love god's house.
May Jayadeva's words adorn those twice
who bow to Hari pondered in their hearts.
Hari's whole becoming spoke his joy
at her now going to the love god's house.
* * *
Boundlessly, as stretching to her ears,
so Rádhá, gazing on her most beloved,
let fall the perspiration of her eyes
in storms of agitation and of joy.
When followers had left the place, their smiles
concealed by hands as she approached the bed,
such love's auspiciousness was in his face,
she found her modesty, ashamed, had fled.
The son of Nanda, in his joy at pressing
Rádhá slowly slowly in his arms,
must hold her, look behind, and pray those jutting
breasts do not protrude to pierce his back.
Like Rati Devi in her hoarded beauty
so Rádhá in the lake where love is played:
a sporting Vishnu shook those splendid breasts
as geese the lotuses of Mánasa.