Sri Aurobindo

Translations

CWSA.- Volume 5

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

Twenty-two Poems of Bidyapati

19

“’Tis night and very timid my little love.

How long ere I see her hither swanlike move!

Dread serpents fill with fear the way;

What perils those soft beloved feet waylay.

Providence, I lay her at thy feet;

Scatheless keep she the tryst, my own, my sweet.

The sky is thick and mired the earth,

Perils wide-strewn: ah me, what fears have birth.

Thick darkness are the quarters ten.

The feet stumble, nought clear the eyes may gain.

She comes! With timid backward glances

Every creature’s heart how she entrances!

A girl she is of human grace,

Yet wears all heaven stolen in her face.”

For high-born women to be o’erborne

By love endure; all other check they scorn.