Part
Three: Bewildered Krishna
Therefore Kamsa's enemy, now
chained
to all the inclinations of this worldly life
by lodging Rádhá in
his heart,
has left his multitude of lovely women.
And more, with love
god's arrows in his thoughts,
and much repenting, he has followed Rádhá:
where sloping thickets of the Yamuná
now show a Mádhava with honey lost.
Seventh Song
All too plainly in my crowd of women
her looking
found me, and I feel ashamed.
So thoughtlessly I acted, Rádhá left.
Not
knowing how she sees this absence, what
are followers or home or wealth to me?
So thoughtlessly I acted, Rádhá left.
Those eyebrows bent I see as circling
bees
will irritate the reddened lotus flower.
So thoughtlessly I acted, Rádhá
left.
Must I now follow her and call in woods
who had the pleasure of
her close to heart?
So thoughtlessly I acted, Rádhá left.
With courteous
words your rage and jealousy
I'd calm if I could know where you have gone.
So thoughtlessly I acted, Rádhá left.
Not here, not
there, you're gone, and do not hold
me eagerly in passion as you did.
So thoughtlessly I acted, Rádhá left.
Forgive me for the things I'd not repeat
with one so beautiful, whose love I seek.
So thoughtlessly I acted, Rádhá left.
So Jayadeva praises Krishna, star
above the sea that is his native village.
So thoughtlessly I acted, Rádhá left.
* * *
Why, when coiling lotuses are not
a snake, nor petalled neck has venomed
hue,
nor sandal paste be ash on this poor body,
should the love god choose
to ravage me?
In sport you conquer. Do not lift at those
who are already
faint your Mango bow.
Those fusillades of darting, deer-like glances
find
my thoughts in scattered disarray.
Her brow the love god has for archer, crossing
glances for his arrows, earlobe bow-string.
Have weapons of a love-god disembodied
in this living goddess conquered all?
That arched brow hurts me with its
loosened arrows,
breath deserts me in those coils of hair,
all consciousness
is lost at those red lips,
and life's a plaything at those rounded breasts.
A
touch, her comfort in it, play of eyes,
that mouth, its fragrance and uncertain
words,
When fixed beyond me is all sense of her
whence comes this anguish
as I meditate?