The Loves of Krishna in Indian Painting and Poetry eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 200 pages of information about The Loves of Krishna in Indian Painting and Poetry.

The Loves of Krishna in Indian Painting and Poetry eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 200 pages of information about The Loves of Krishna in Indian Painting and Poetry.

  She who with the wearer of the garland lies in dalliance. 
  With him whose lovely mouth is like a lotus that is opening,
  With him whose words are nectar in their sweetness and their tenderness,
  With him who wears a garment streaked with gold, all white and
    beautiful
  Not made to sigh is she, my friend, derided by her girls!

Next morning Radha is standing with her girls when Krishna tries to approach her.  Now, however, he has come too late.  Radha has suffered too greatly.  Her patience is at an end and although Krishna implores her to forgive him, she rounds on him in anger, ordering him to return to the other girl whom he has just left.[57]

  Your mouth, O Krishna, darkened, enhances the crimson beauty of
    your lovely body,
  Enhances with a, darkness, a blackness that arises from the kissing of
    eyes coloured with black unguent. 
  Go, Krishna, go.  Desist from uttering these deceitful words. 
  Follow her, you lotus-eyed, she who can dispel your trouble, go to
    her.

  I who follow you devoted—­how can you deceive me, so tortured by
    love’s fever as I am? 
  O Krishna, like the look of you, your body which appears so black,
    that heart of yours a blackness shall assume. 
  Follow her, you lotus-eyed, she who can dispel your trouble, go to her.

Faced with these reproaches, Krishna slinks away.  Radha’s friend knows, however, that despite her bitter anger, Radha desires nothing more than his love.  She attempts, therefore, to instil in her a calmer frame of mind, urging her to end her pride and take Krishna back.  She goes to look for Krishna and while she is absent, Krishna returns.  Standing before Radha, he implores her once again to end her anger.

  If you speak but a little the moon-like gleam of your teeth will destroy
    the darkness frightful, so very terrible, come over me;
  Your moon of a face which glitters upon my eye, the moon-bird’s eye,
    now makes me long for the sweet of your lips. 
  O loved one, O beautiful, give up that baseless pride against me,
  My heart is burnt by the fire of longing; give me that drink so sweet
    of your lotus face. 
  O you with beautiful teeth, if you are in anger against me, strike me
    then with your finger nails, sharp and like arrows,
  Bind me, entwining, with the cords of your arms, and bite me then
    with your teeth, and feel happy punishing. 
  O loved one, O beautiful, give up that baseless pride against me.

At these words, Radha’s anger leaves her; and when Krishna withdraws, it is to go to the forest and await her coming.  Radha’s joy returns.  She decks herself in the loveliest of her ornaments and then, accompanied by her maids, moves slowly to the tryst.[58] As they reach the bower which Krishna has constructed, her friend urges her to enter.

  O you who bear on your face the smile that comes of the ardour of
    passion
  Sport with him whose love-abode is the floor of the beautiful bower.

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The Loves of Krishna in Indian Painting and Poetry from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.