<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=428276" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Birth of The War-God (Canto Sixth ) - Uma's Espousals</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now gentle Umá bade a damsel bear<br>To Śiva, Soul of All, her maiden prayer:<br>'Wait the high sanction of Himálaya's will,<br>And ask his daughter from the royal hill.'<br>Then ere the God, her own dear Lord, replied,<br>In blushing loveliness she sought his side.<br>Thus the young mango hails the approaching spring<br>By its own tuneful bird's sweet welcoming.<br>In Umá's ear he softly whispered, yea,<br>Then scarce could tear him from her arms away.<br>Swift with a thought he summoned from above<br>The Seven bright Saints to bear his tale of love.<br>They came, and She, the Heavenly Dame, was there,<br>Lighting with glories all the radiant air;<br>Just freshly bathed in sacred Gangá's tide,<br>Gemmed with the dancing flowers that deck her side,<br>And richly scented with the nectarous rill<br>That heavenly elephants from their brows distil.<br>Fair strings of pearl their radiant fingers hold,<br>Clothed are their limbs in hermit-coats of gold;<br>Their rosaries, large gems of countless price,<br>Shone like the fruit that glows in Paradise,<br>As though the glorious trees that blossom there<br>Had sought the forest for a life of prayer.<br>With all his thousand beams the God of Day,<br>Urging his coursers down the sloping way,<br>His banner furled at the approach of night,<br>Looks up in reverence on those lords of light.<br>Ancient creators: thus the wise, who know,<br>Gave them a name in ages long ago:<br>With Brahmá joining in creation's plan,<br>And perfecting the work His will began;<br>Still firm in penance, though the hermit-vow<br>Bears a ripe harvest for the sages now.<br>Brightest in glory 'mid that glorious band<br>See the fair Queen, the Heavenly Lady, stand.<br>Fixing her loving eyes upon her spouse,<br>She seemed sent forth to crown the sage's vows<br>With sweet immortal joy, the dearest prize<br>Strong prayer could merit from the envious skies.<br>With equal honour on the Queen and all<br>Did the kind glance of Śiva's welcome fall.<br>No partial favour by the good is shown:<br>They count not station, but the deed alone.<br>So fair she shone upon his raptured view,<br>He longed for wedlock's heavenly pleasures too.<br>What hath such power to lead the soul above<br>By virtue's pleasant path as wedded love!<br>Scarce had the holy motive lent its aid<br>To knit great Śiva to the Mountain-Maid,<br>When Káma's spirit that had swooned in fear<br>Breathed once again and deemed forgiveness near.<br>The ancient Sages reverently adored<br>The world's great Father and its Sovran Lord,<br>And while a soft ecstatic thrilling ran<br>O'er their celestial frames, they thus began:<br>'Glorious the fruit our holy studies bear,<br>Our constant penance, sacrifice and prayer.<br>For that high place within thy thoughts we gain<br>Which fancy strives to reach, but longs in vain.<br>How blest is he, the glory of the wise,<br>Deep in whose thoughtful breast thy Godhead lies!<br>But who may tell his joy who rests enshrined,<br>O Brahmá's great Creator, in thy mind!<br>We dwell on high above the cold moon's ray;<br>Beneath our mansion glows the God of Day,<br>But now thy favour lends us brighter beams,<br>Blest with thy love our star unchanging gleams.<br>How should we tell what soul-entrancing bliss<br>Enthrals our spirit at an hour like this?<br>Great Lord of All, thou Soul of Life indwelling,<br>We crave one word thy wondrous nature telling.<br>Though to our eyes thy outward form be shown,<br>How can we know thee as thou shouldst be known?<br>In this thy present shape, we pray thee, say<br>Dost thou create? dost thou preserve or slay?<br>But speak thy wish; called from our starry rest<br>We wait, O Śiva, for our Lord's behest'<br>Then answered thus the Lord of glory, while<br>Flashed from his dazzling teeth so white a smile,<br>The moon that crowned him poured a larger stream<br>Of living splendour from that pearly gleam:<br>'Ye know, great Sages of a race divine,<br>No selfish want e'er prompts a deed of mine.<br>Do not the forms—eight varied forms—I wear,<br>The truth of this to all the world declare?<br>Now, as that thirsty bird that drinks the rain<br>Prays the kind clouds of heaven to soothe its pain,<br>So the Gods pray me, trembling 'neath their foe,<br>To send a child of mine and end their woe.<br>I seek the Mountain-Maiden as my bride:<br>Our hero son shall tame the demon's pride.<br>Thus the priest bids the holy fire arise,<br>Struck from the wood to aid the sacrifice.<br>Go, ask Himálaya for the lovely maid:<br>Blest are those bridals which the holy aid.<br>So shall more glorious honours gild my name,<br>And win the father yet a prouder fame.<br>Nor, O ye heavenly Sages, need I teach<br>What for the maiden's hand shall be your speech,<br>For still the wise in worthiest honour hold<br>The rules and precepts ye ordained of old.<br>This Lady too shall aid your mission there:<br>Best for such task a skilful matron's care.<br>And now, my heralds, to your task away,<br>Where proud Himálaya holds his royal sway;<br>Then meet me where this mighty torrent raves<br>Down the steep channel with its headlong waves.'<br>Thus while that holiest One his love confessed,<br>The hermits listened: from each saintly breast<br>Fled the false shame that yet had lingered there,<br>And love and wedlock showed divinely fair.<br>On through the heaven, o'er tracts of swordlike blue,<br>Towards the gay city, swift as thought, they flew,<br>Bright with high domes and palaces most fair,<br>As if proud Alaká were planted there,<br>Or Paradise poured forth, in showers that bless,<br>The rich o'erflowings of its loveliness.<br>Round lofty towers adorned with gems and gold<br>Her guardian stream the holy Gangá rolled.<br>On every side, the rampart's glowing crown,<br>Bright wreaths of fragrant flowers hung waving down,—<br>Flowers that might tempt the maids of heavenly birth<br>To linger fondly o'er that pride of earth.<br>Its noble elephants, unmoved by fear,<br>The distant roaring of the lions hear.<br>In beauty peerless, and unmatched in speed,<br>Its thousand coursers of celestial breed.<br>Through the broad streets bright sylphs and minstrels rove:<br>Its dames are Goddesses of stream and grove.<br>Hark! the drum echoes louder and more loud<br>From glittering halls whose spires are wrapt in cloud.<br>It were the thunder, but that voice of fear<br>Falls not in measured time upon the ear.<br>'Tis balmy cool, for many a heavenly tree,<br>With quivering leaves and branches waving free,<br>Sheds a delightful freshness through the air,—<br>Fans which no toil of man has stationed there.<br>The crystal chambers where they feast at night<br>Flash back the beamings of the starry light.<br>So brightly pure that silver gleam is shed,<br>Playing so fondly round each beauteous head,<br>That all seem gifted from those lights above<br>With richest tokens of superior love.<br>How blest its maidens! cloudless is their day,<br>And radiant herbs illume their nightly way.<br>No term of days, but endless youth they know;<br>No Death save him who bears the Flowery Bow:<br>Their direst swoon, their only frenzy this—<br>The trance of love, the ecstasy of bliss!<br>Ne'er can their lovers for one hour withstand<br>The frown, the quivering lip, the scornful hand;<br>But seek forgiveness of the angry fair,<br>And woo her smile with many an earnest prayer.<br>Around, wide gardens spread their pleasant bowers,<br>Where the bright Champac opes her fragrant flowers:<br>Dear shades, beloved by the sylphs that roam<br>In dewy evening from their mountain home.<br>Ah! why should mortals fondly strive to gain<br>Heaven and its joys by ceaseless toil and pain?<br>E'en the Saints envied as their steps drew near,<br>And owned a brighter heaven was opened here.<br>They lighted down; braided was each long tress,<br>Bright as the pictured flame, as motionless.<br>Himálaya's palace-warders in amaze<br>On the Seven Sages turned their eager gaze,—<br>A noble company of celestial race<br>Where each in order of his years had place,—<br>Glorious, as when the sun, his head inclining,<br>Sees his own image 'mid the waters shining.<br>To greet them with a gift Himálaya sped,<br>Earth to her centre shaking at his tread.<br>By his dark lips with mountain metals dyed,<br>His arms like pines that clothe his lofty side:<br>By his proud stature, by his stony breast,<br>Lord of the Snowy Hills he stood confest.<br>On to his Council-hall he led the way,<br>Nor failed due honour to the Saints to pay.<br>On couch of reed the Monarch bade them rest,<br>And thus with uplift hands those Heavenly Lords addressed:<br>'Like soft rain falling from a cloudless sky,<br>Or fruit, when bloom has failed to glad the eye,<br>So are ye welcome, Sages; thus I feel<br>Ecstatic thrilling o'er my spirit steal,<br>Changed, like dull senseless iron to burning gold,<br>Or some rapt creature, when the heavens unfold<br>To eyes yet dim with tears of earthly care,<br>The rest, the pleasures, and the glory there.<br>Long pilgrim bands from this auspicious day<br>To my pure hill shall bend their constant way.<br>Famed shall it be o'er all the lands around,<br>For where the good have been is holy ground.<br>Now am I doubly pure, for Gangá's tide<br>Falls on my head from heaven and laves my side.<br>Henceforth I boast a second stream as sweet,<br>The water, Sages, that has touched your feet.<br>Twice by your favour is Himálaya blest,—<br>This towery mountain that your feet have prest,<br>And this my moving form is happier still<br>To wait your bidding, to perform your will.<br>These mighty limbs that fill the heaven's expanse<br>Sink down, o'erpowered, in a blissful trance.<br>So bright your presence, at the glorious sight<br>My brooding shades of darkness turn to light.<br>The gloom that haunts my mountain caverns flies,<br>And cloudy passion in the spirit dies.<br>O say, if here your arrowy course ye sped<br>To throw fresh glory round my towering head.<br>Surely your wish, ye Mighty Ones, can crave<br>No aid, no service from your willing slave.<br>Yet deem me worthy of some high behest:<br>The lord commandeth, and the slave is blest.<br>Declare your pleasure, then, bright heavenly band:<br>We crave no guerdon but your sole command.<br>Yours are we all, Himálaya and his bride,<br>And this dear maiden child our hope and pride.'<br>Not once he spake: his cavern mouths around<br>In hollow echoings gave again the sound.<br>Of all who speak beyond compare the best,<br>Angiras answered at the Saints' request:<br>'This power hast thou, great King, and mightier far,<br>Thy mind is lofty as thy summits are.<br>Sages say truly, Vishṇu is thy name:<br>His spirit breatheth in thy mountain frame.<br>Within the caverns of thy boundless breast<br>All things that move and all that move not rest.<br>How on his head so soft, so delicate,<br>Could the great Snake uphold the huge earth's weight,<br>Did not thy roots, far-reaching down to hell,<br>Bear up the burden and assist him well?<br>Thy streams of praise, thy pure rills' ceaseless flow<br>Make glad the nations wheresoe'er they go,<br>Till, shedding purity on every side,<br>They sink at length in boundless Ocean's tide.<br>Blest is fair Gangá, for her heavenly stream<br>Flows from the feet of him that sits supreme;<br>And blest once more, O mighty Hill, is she<br>That her bright waters spring anew from thee.<br>Vast grew his body when the avenging God<br>In three huge strides o'er all creation trod.<br>Above, below, his form increased, but thou<br>Wast ever glorious and as vast as now.<br>By thee is famed Sumeru forced to hide<br>His flashing rays and pinnacles of pride,<br>For thou hast won thy station in the skies<br>'Mid the great Gods who claim the sacrifice.<br>Firm and unmoved remains thy lofty hill,<br>Yet thou canst bow before the holy still.<br>Now—for the glorious work will fall on thee,—<br>Hear thou the cause of this our embassy.<br>We also, Mountain Monarch, since we bear<br>To thee the message, in the labour share.<br>The Highest, Mightiest, Noblest One, adored<br>By the proud title of our Sovran Lord:<br>The crescent moon upon his brow bears he,<br>And wields the wondrous powers of Deity.<br>He in this earth and varied forms displayed,<br>Bound each to other by exchange of aid,<br>Guides the great world and all the things that are,<br>As flying coursers whirl the glittering car.<br>Him good men seek with holy thought and prayer,<br>Who fills their breast and makes his dwelling there.<br>When saints, we read, his lofty sphere attain,<br>They ne'er may fall to this base earth again:<br>His messengers, great King, we crave the hand<br>Of thy fair daughter at the God's command.<br>At such blest union, as of Truth and Voice,<br>A father's heart should grieve not, but rejoice.<br>Her Lord is Father of the world, and she<br>Of all that liveth shall the mother be.<br>Gods that adore him with the Neck of Blue<br>In homage bent shall hail the Lady too,<br>And give a glory to her feet with gems<br>That sparkle in their priceless diadems.<br>Hear what a roll shall blazon forth thy line,—<br>Maid, Father, Suitor, Messengers divine!<br>Give him the chosen lady, and aspire<br>To call thy son the Universe's Sire,<br>Who laudeth none, but all mankind shall raise<br>To Him through endless time the songs of praise.'<br>Thus while he spake the lady bent her head<br>To hide her cheek, now blushing rosy red,<br>And numbered o'er with seeming care the while<br>Her lotus' petals in sweet maiden guile.<br>With pride and joy Himálaya's heart beat high,<br>Yet ere he spake he looked to Mená's eye:<br>Full well he knew a mother's gentle care<br>Learns her child's heart and love's deep secret there,<br>And this the hour, he felt, when fathers seek<br>Her eye for answer or her changing cheek.<br>His eager look Himálaya scarce had bent<br>When Mená's eye beamed back her glad assent.<br>O gentle wives! your fondest wish is still<br>To have with him you love one heart, one will.<br>He threw his arms around the blushing maid<br>In queenly garment and in gems arrayed,<br>Awhile was silent, then in rapture cried,<br>'Come, O my daughter! Come, thou destined bride<br>Of Śiva, Lord of All: this glorious band<br>Of Saints have sought thee at the God's command;<br>And I thy sire this happy day obtain<br>The best reward a father's wish would gain.'<br>Then to the Saints he cried: 'Pure Hermits, see<br>The spouse of Śiva greets your company.'<br>They looked in rapture on the maid, and poured<br>Their fullest blessing on her heavenly lord.<br>So low she bowed, the gems that decked her hair<br>And sparkled in her ear fell loosened there;<br>Then with sweet modesty and joy opprest<br>She hid her blushes on the Lady's breast,<br>Who cheered the mother weeping for her child,<br>Her own dear Umá, till again she smiled:<br>Such bliss and glory should be hers above,<br>Yea, mighty Śiva's undivided love.<br>They named the fourth for Umá's nuptial day;<br>Then sped the Sages on their homeward way;<br>And thanked by Śiva with a gracious eye<br>Sought their bright rest amid the stars on high.<br>Through all those weary days the lover sighed<br>To wind his fond arms round his gentle bride.<br>Oh, if the Lord of Heaven could find no rest,<br>Think, think how Love, strong Love, can tear a mortal's breast!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Kalidasa">Kalidasa</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=428276" data-title="The Birth of The War-God (Canto Sixth ) - Uma's Espousals de Kalidasa" data-description="Now gentle Umá bade a damsel bear To Śiva, Soul of All, her maiden prayer: 'Wait the high sanction of Himálaya's will, And ask his daughter from the royal hill.' Then ere the God, her own dear Lord, replied, In blushing loveliness she sought hi..."></div> </div> </div>

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