AMARU

Amarushataka

…..

He entered the house of his mistress

after long journeys,

trembling with desire,

emotion and impatience.

And he found her surrounded

by women friends,

who took malicious pleasure

in prolonging their visit.

But she was more eager still,

and crying:

‘Ah, something bites me!’

lifted her veil

and fanned out the flame

of the only torch with it.

So that the guests departed.

…..

No one has dared to speak

of you to me

since you went away.

But I have said your name

to the wind

as he passed me,

and to a certain man

as he lay dying.

If you are alive,

O my mistress,

the wind will some day meet you

as he passes,

and if you are dead,

the dead man will tell you

I have not forgotten.

…..

If I told my pain to the torrent,

the torrent would halt for me.

If I told it to the palm tree,

the tree would bend down about me.

But you pass singing,

and do not even regard me.

I will tell my pain to the torrent.

If the torrent does not halt for me,

at least its water will refresh my brow.

I will tell my pain to the palm tree.

If the palm tree does not bend down about me,

at least it will shade my grief.

Once more I have conquered shame

and told you my suffering.

You refuse me the water of your lips,

the shade of your shadow.

…..
O night,

you have often come to me

softly

and covered my face

when it was weeping.

A nectar glistens

in my cup this evening,

and my lover lies

upon my breast.

Stay with me

as long as you will tonight,

O night.

…..

‘Pity!’ she says,

with bruised breasts and disordered hair.

With eyes closed and legs still trembling,

‘Finish!’ she says.

She says in a choked voice:

‘It is enough!’

And now her silence grows eternal.

Is she dead or sleeping,

is she meditating in delight

on what has happened,

or thinking of another?

…..

Her fair bosom was pressed low under the close embrace,

and the skin bristled with happiness;

the garment slipped off from her

where the girdle is worn as the ardor of love

rose to a pitch of intensity and she whispered weakly:

“Now do not, thou remover of my pride,

do not commit any excess, it is enough!"

I wonder if she was sleeping or was dead,

or sank into my heart or simply melted away !

…..

From today onwards, I shall not give any place

in my heart to anger against my lover; nor shall I

ever mention the name of that poison-like evil-minded one.

So will not the night, laughing loudly through the clear rays

of the moon, pass without him, or will not a single day

in the rainy season, darkened by clouds, pass without him?