<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=428278" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Cloud Messenger - Part 01</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">A certain yaksha who had been negligent in the execution of his own duties,<br>on account of a curse from his master which was to be endured for a year and<br>which was onerous as it separated him from his beloved, made his residence<br>among the hermitages of Ramagiri, whose waters were blessed by the bathing<br>of the daughter of Janaka1 and whose shade trees grew in profusion.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">That lover, separated from his beloved, whose gold armlet had slipped from<br>his bare forearm, having dwelt on that mountain for some months, on the first<br>day of the month of Asadha, saw a cloud embracing the summit, which<br>resembled a mature elephant playfully butting a bank.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Managing with difficulty to stand up in front of that cloud which was the<br>cause of the renewal of his enthusiasm, that attendant of the king of kings,<br>pondered while holding back his tears. Even the mind of a happy person is<br>excited at the sight of a cloud. How much more so, when the one who longs to<br>cling to his neck is far away?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">As the month of Nabhas was close at hand, having as his goal the sustaining<br>of the life of his beloved and wishing to cause the tidings of his own welfare<br>to be carried by the cloud, the delighted being spoke kind words of welcome<br>to the cloud to which offerings of fresh kutaja flowers had been made.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Owing to his impatience, not considering the imcompatibility between a cloud<br>consisting of vapour, light, water and wind and the contents of his message<br>best delivered by a person of normal faculties, the yaksha made this request to<br>the cloud, for among sentient and non-sentient things, those afflicted by desire<br>are naturally miserable:</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Without doubt, your path unimpeded, you will see your brother’s wife, intent<br>on counting the days, faithful and living on. The bond of hope generally<br>sustains the quickly sinking hearts of women who are alone, and which wilt<br>like flowers.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Just as the favourable wind drives you slowly onward, this cataka cuckoo,<br>your kinsman, calls sweetly on the left. Knowing the season for fertilisation,<br>cranes, like threaded garlands in the sky, lovely to the eye, will serve you.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Your steady passage observed by charming female siddhas who in trepidation<br>wonder ‘Has the summit been carried off the mountain by the wind?’, you<br>who are heading north, fly up into the sky from this place where the nicula<br>trees flourish, avoiding on the way the blows of the trunks of the elephants of<br>the four quarters of the sky.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">This rainbow, resembling the intermingled sparkling of jewels, appears before<br>Mt Valmikagra, on account of which your dark body takes on a particular<br>loveliness, as did the body of Vishnu dressed as a cowherd with the peacock’s<br>feather of glistening lustre.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">While being imbibed by the eyes of the country women who are ignorant of<br>the play of the eyebrows, who are tender in their affection, and who are<br>thinking ‘The result of the harvest depends on you’, having ascended to a<br>region whose fields are fragrant from recent ploughing, you should proceed a<br>little to the west. Your pace is swift. Go north once more.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Mt Amrakuta will carefully bear you upon its head—you whose showers<br>extinguished its forest fires and who are overcome by fatigue of the road.<br>Even a lowly being, remembering an earlier kind deed, does not turn its back<br>on a friend who has come for refuge; how much less, then, one so lofty?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When you, remembling a glossy braid of hair, have ascended its summit, the<br>mountain whose slopes are covered with forest mangoes, glowing with ripe<br>fruit, takes on the appearance of a breast of the earth, dark at the centre, the<br>rest pale, worthy to be beheld by a divine couple.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Having rested for a moment at a bower enjoyed by the forest-dwelling<br>women, then travelling more swiftly when your waters have been discharged,<br>the next stage thence is crossed. You will see the river Reva spread at the foot<br>of Mt Vandhya, made rough with rocks and resembling the pattern formed by<br>the broken wrinkles on the body of an elephant.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Your showers shed, having partaken of her waters that are scented with the<br>fragrant exudation of forest elephants and whose flow is impeded by thickets<br>of rose-apples, you should proceed. Filled with water, the wind will be unable<br>to lift you, O cloud, for all this is empty is light, while fullness results in<br>heaviness.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Seeing the yellow-brown nipa with their stamens half erect, eating the kankali<br>flowers whose first buds have appeared on every bank, and smelling the<br>highly fragrant scent of the forest earth, the deer will indicate the way to the<br>cloud.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Watching the cataka cuckoos that are skilled in catching raindrops, and<br>watching the herons flying in skeins as they count them, the siddhas will hold<br>you in high regard at the moment of your thundering, having received the<br>trembling, agitated embraced of their beloved female companions!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I perceive in an instant, friend, your delays on mountain after mountain<br>scented with kakubha flowers—you who should desire to proceed for the sake<br>of my beloved. Welcomed by peacocks with teary eyes who have turned their<br>cries into words of welcome, you should somehow resolve to proceed at once.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Reaching their capital by the name of Vidisha, renowned in all quarters, and<br>having won at once complete satisfaction of your desires, you will drink the<br>sweet, rippling water from the Vetravati River which roars pleasantly at the<br>edge of her banks, rippling as if her face bore a frown.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">There, for the sake of rest, your should occupy the mountain known as Nicaih<br>which seems to thrill at your touch with its full-blown kadamba flowers, and<br>whose grottoes make known the unbridled youthful deeds of the townsmen by<br>emitting the scent of intercourse with bought women.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">After resting, move on while watering with fresh raindrops the clusters of<br>jasmine buds that grow in gardens on the banks of the forest rivers—you who<br>have made a momentary acquaintance with the flower-picking girls by lending<br>shade to their faces, the lotuses at whose ears are withered and broken as they<br>wipe away the perspiration from their cheeks.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Even though the route would be circuitous for one who, like you, is<br>northward-bound, do not turn your back on the love on the palace roofs in<br>Ujjayini. If you do not enjoy the eyes with flickering eyelids of the women<br>startled by bolts of lightning there, then you have been deceived!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">On the way, after you have ascended to the Nirvandhya River, whose girdles<br>are flocks of birds calling on account of the turbulence of her waves, whose<br>gliding motion is rendered delightful with stumbling steps, and whose<br>exposed navel is her eddies, fill yourself with water, for amorous distraction <br>is a woman’s first expression of love for their beloved.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When you have passed that, you should duly adopt the means by which the<br>Sindhu River may cast off her emaciation—she whose waters have become<br>like a single braid of hair, whose complexion is made pale by the old leaves<br>falling from the trees on her banks, and who shows you goodwill because she<br>has been separated from you, O fortunate one.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Having reached Avanti where the village elders are well-versed in the legend<br>of Udayana, make your way to the aforementioned city of Vishala, filled with<br>splendour, like a beautiful piece of heaven carried there by means of the<br>remaining merit of gods who had fallen to earth when the fruits of the good<br>actions had nearly expired;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Where, at daybreak, the breeze from the Shipra River, carrying abroad the<br>sweet, clear, impassioned cries of the geese, fragrant from contact with the<br>scent of full-blown lotuses and pleasing to the body, carries off the lassitude<br>of the women after their love-play, like a lover making entreaties for further<br>enjoyment.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And having see by the tens of millions the strings of pearls with shining gems<br>as their central stones, conches, pearl-shells, emeralds as green as fresh grass<br>with radiating brilliance and pieces of coral displayed in the market there, the<br>oceans appear to contain nothing but water;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And where the knowledgeable populace regale visiting relatives thus: ‘Here<br>the king of the Vatsa brought the precious daughter of Pradyota. Here was the <br>golden grove of tala-trees of that same monarch. Here, they say, roamed<br>Nalagiri (the elephant), having pulled out his tie-post in fury.’</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Your bulk increased by the incense that is used for perfuming the hair that<br>issues from the lattices, and honoured with gifts of dance by the domestic<br>peacocks out of their love for their friend, lay aside the weariness of the <br>travel while admiring the splendour of its palaces which are scented with <br>flowers and marked by the hennaed feet of the lovely women.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Observed respectfully by divine retinues who are reminded of the colour of<br>their master’s throat, you should proceed to the holy abode of the lord of the<br>three worlds, husband of Chandi, whose gardens are caressed by the winds<br>from the Gandhavati River, scented with the pollen of the blue lotuses and<br>perfumed by the bath-oils used by young women who delight in water-play.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Even if you arrive at Mahakala at some other time, O cloud, you should wait<br>until the sun passes from the range of the eye. Playing the honourable role of<br>drum at the evening offering to Shiva, you will receive the full reward for<br>your deep thunder.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">There, their girdles jingling to their footsteps, and their hands tired from the<br>pretty waving of fly-whisks whose handles are brilliant with the sparkle of<br>jewels, having received from you raindrops at the onset of the rainy season<br>that soothe the scratches made by fingernails, the courtesans cast you<br>lingering sidelong glances that resemble rows of honey-bees.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then, settled above the forests whose trees are like uplifted arms, being round<br>in shape, producing an evening light, red as a fresh China-rose, at the start of<br>Shiva’s dance, remove his desire for a fresh elephant skin—you whose<br>devotion is beheld by Parvati, her agitation stilled and her gaze transfixed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Reveal the ground with a bolt of lightning that shines like a streak of gold <br>on a touchstone to the young women in that vicinity going by night to the homes of<br>their lovers along the royal highroad which has been robbed of light by a<br>darkness that could be pricked with a needle. Withhold your showers of rain<br>and rumbling thunder: they would be frightened!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Passing that night above the roof-top of a certain house where pigeons sleep,<br>you, whose consort the lightning is tired by prolonged sport, should complete<br>the rest of your journey when the sun reappears. Indeed, those who have<br>promised to accomplish a task for a friend do not tarry.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">At that time, the tears of the wronged wives are to be soothed away by their<br>husbands. Therefore abandon at once the path of the sun. He too has returned<br>to remove the tears of dew from the lotus-faces of the lilies. If you obstruct <br>his rays, he may become greatly incensed.</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=428278" data-title="The Cloud Messenger - Part 01 de Kalidasa" data-description="A certain yaksha who had been negligent in the execution of his own duties, on account of a curse from his master which was to be endured for a year and which was onerous as it separated him from his beloved, made his residence among the hermitage..."></div> </div> </div>

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