Sri Aurobindo

Translations

CWSA.- Volume 5

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

Selected Poems of Horo Thacoor

2

(The soul catching a reflection of God’s face in the river of the world, is enchanted with its beauty.)

Lolita, say

What is this strange, sweet thing I watch today,

Fixed lightning in the water’s quiet dreaming?

Lolita, none

Disturb a single wave here, even one!

Great is her sin who blots the vision gleaming.

Lolita, see

What glimmers in the wave so wondrously?

Of Crishna’s limbs it has each passionate motion.

Lolita, then

To lure my soul comes that dark rose of men

In a shadow’s form, and witch with strange emotion?

Lolita, daily

To bring sweet water home we troop here gaily,

But never yet saw in the waves such beauty.

Lolita, tell me

Why do so many strange sweet thoughts assail me,

As moonbloom petals to the moon pay duty?

Lolita, may

This be the moon eclipsed that fain would stay

In the clear water being from heaven effacèd?

Lolita, no

The moon is to the lotus bright a foe;

But this! my heart leaps forward to embrace it.