Sri Aurobindo

Translations

CWSA.- Volume 5

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

Selected Poems of Bidyapati

7

Lotus bosom, lotus feet,

Justify, I charge thee, sweet!

Knowing the true love thou hast won

Wilt thou not love back, lovely one?

Love in true hearts gold surpasses.

To the fire golden masses

Double price and beauty owe.

Loves by trial greater grow.

Love, my sweet, ’s a wondrous thing

Imperishable in suffering.

Break it, but it will not break.

Love, like fibres of the lake,

Thrives on torture; beaten, grows;

Bleeding, thrills to sweeter rose.

Not from every elephant

Pearldrops ooze iridescent,

Not from all lips accents fall

Melodious as the cuckoo’s call.

Every season is not Spring,

Every man love’s perfect king,

Nor all women the world through

Always lovely, always true.

This is love, as sweet as rare;

Wilt thou spurn it, vainly fair?