SRI AUROBINDO
Translations
from Sanskrit and Other Languages
II. From Bengali
II
The soul catching a reflection of God’s face in the river of worlds, is enchanted with its beauty.
What is this strange, sweet thing I watch today,
Fixed lightning in the water’s quiet dreaming?
Disturb a single wave here, even one!
Great is her sin who blots the vision gleaming.
What glimmers in the wave so wondrously?
Of Crishna’s limbs it has each passionate motion.
To lure my soul comes that dark rose of men
In a shadow’s form, and witch with strange emotion?
To bring sweet water home we troop here gaily,
But never yet saw in the waves such beauty.
Why do so many strange sweet thoughts assail me,
As moon-bloom petals to the moon pay duty?
This be the moon eclipsed that fain would stay
In the clear water being from heaven effacèd?
The moon is to the lotus bright a foe;
But this – my heart leaps forward to embrace it.