Sri Aurobindo

Translations

CWSA.- Volume 5

Part Two. Translations from Bengali
Section One. Vaishnava Devotional Poetry

Twenty-two Poems of Bidyapati

13

The moonwhite maiden from her bath

Passing I saw from a woodland path.

From all sweet things she stolen had

Beauty in one fair girl arrayed.

Her tresses that her small hands wrung

A shower of faery water flung

As tho’ a fan of beauty whirled

Carcanets with gems impearled.

Her wet curls wearing wondrous grace

Like bees besieged her lotus face

For all that honey wild with lust.

The water from her sweet eyes thrust

Yet left them reddened, as in the ooze

Petals of lotus with ceruse.

Heavy with water her thin robe

Defined each bright and milky globe;

Like golden apples gleamed her breasts

On which the happy hoarfrost rests.

So the robe clung as if it said

“Soon will she leave me and love be dead,

Nor ever once shall I attain

Such exquisite delight again.”

So the robe thought, as well appears,

And therefore sorrowed, showering tears.