Low on her radiant forehead shoneSri Aurobindo
Translations
CWSA.- Volume 5
Part Two. Translations from Bengali
Section One.
Vaishnava Devotional Poetry
Selected Poems of Bidyapati
9
Low on her radiant forehead shone
A star of the bright vermilion.
O marvellous face! O shining maid!
Moonlight and sunlight drawn together
Met in a heaven of golden weather,
While the massèd midnight hung afraid
Behind in her burden of great dark hair.
O woman of moonlight rarer than Nature’s!
O delicate body! O wonderful features!
Whence did Fate build you with effort made fair?
The buds of her flowerlike breasts between
Her robe’s white folds were a little seen.
The snows may cover the high bright hill,
Hidden it is not, strive as you will.
From her darkened eyes her shy look roving
On lids love-troubled tenderly burned
Like the purple lilies winds were moving
By the weight of a bee overturned.
And the lyre made sweet in the year’s sweet end.
To Lochima, lady of Mithila city,
And Sheva Singha the King, his friend.