SRI AUROBINDO
Translations
from Sanskrit and Other Languages
II. From Bengali
VII
See the bright bud half open blow.
Her swift and wilful feet grown wise
Yield their rudderless gait to the eyes.
Ever her hand to her bosom’s dress
Clings to control its waywardness.
Afraid to utter her shy hushed thought
Her comrade-girls she questions not.
Madhav, how shall faltering word
Her sweet and twilight age record?
Love, even Love, beholding her
In his own bonds her captive were.
Nay but the lord of all desire
Her heart’s precincts raising higher
Has set for passion’s sacred duty
Altars of surpassing beauty.
Love’s speech her listening heart doth stop
As the hunter’s song the antelope.
Two powers dispute this beauteous prize.
Nought one deems gained while aught there is
To gain, nor the other failure owns
While yet he holds to his golden thrones.
Still with sweet violence she clings
To her loved childhood’s parting wings.