Part
Eight: Abashed Krishna
Somehow having spent the night's long watches,
in the morning, and still stung with arrows,
with him in front of her, conciliatory
and bowing even, angrily she said:
Seventeenth Song
With
eyes still reddened from a wakeful night,
would you in condenscension offer me
tender what you offered someone else?
I ask you, Hari, speak no lying words,
nor, Madhava, to make those eyes at me.
Be off, the pair of you, Keshava, Krishna:
and if she pleases you, then take her too.
Besmirched by kissing
of her lampblack lids,
your morning lips are marked with that deep hue
which
is the colour, Krishna, of your shape.
I
ask you, Hari, speak no lying words,
nor, Madhava, to make
those eyes at me.
Be off, the pair of you, Keshava, Krishna:
and if she pleases
you, then take her too.
How harsh love's battle your scratched
body shows:
the nailmarks driven as dark emerald bits
that write your victory
in their gleaming strokes.
I ask
you, Hari, speak no lying words,
nor, Madhava, to make those
eyes at me.
Be off, the pair of you, Keshava, Krishna:
and if she pleases
you, then take her too.
At heart and printed on your belly
go
the trail of pale lac feet: the tree of love
displays—how charmingly!—
its train of leaves.
I ask you,
Hari, speak no lying words,
nor, Madhava, to make those
eyes at me.
Be off, the pair of you, Keshava, Krishna:
and if she pleases
you, then take her too.
For me her tooth mark on your
lip is pain.
while you would urge your perjured body
merge indissolubly and
into mine?
I ask you, Hari, speak
no lying words,
nor, Madhava, to make those eyes at me.
Be off, the pair of you, Keshava, Krishna:
and if she pleases you, then take
her too.
Your mind is blacker than your colour, Krishna,
to lead astray the followers brought down
unequally
with fevers of the heart.
I
ask you, Hari, speak no lying words,
nor, Madhava, to make
those eyes at me.
Be off, the pair of you, Keshava, Krishna:
and if she pleases
you, then take her too.
Why would your lordship wander
in the woods
to prey on foolish women there, suck out
their life as from
the demoness Putana?
I ask you,
Hari, speak no lying words,
nor, Madhava, to make those
eyes at me.
Be off, the pair of you, Keshava, Krishna:
and if she pleases
you, then take her too.
So Jayadeva of a girl deceived,
and wailing. Sages listen: not in Heaven
even is there sweetness such as
this.
I ask you, Hari, speak no
lying words,
nor, Madhava, to make those eyes at me.
Be off, the pair of you, Keshava, Krishna:
and if she pleases you, then take
her too.
* * *
My
love is on the roads: your chest displays
the decoration of her red-lac feet:
my swollen heart is broken by some cheat,
and worse than anguish is the shame
I feel.