Canto 13Radha’s Appeal
Book 1. Part One - England and Baroda 1883 – 1898
England and Baroda, 1883–1898
Radha’s Complaint in Absence
(Imitated from the Bengali of Chundidas)
O heart, my heart, a heavy pain is thine!
5What land is that where none doth know
Love’s cruel name nor any word of sin?
My heart, there let us go.
Friend of my soul, who then has called love sweet?
Laughing I called from heavenly spheres
10The sweet love close; he came with flying feet
And turned my life to tears.
What highborn girl, exiling virgin pride,
Has wooed love to her with a laugh?
His fires shall burn her as in harvest-tide
15The mowers burn the chaff.
O heart, my heart, merry thy sweet youth ran
In fields where no love was; thy breath
Is anguish, since his cruel reign began.
What other cure but death?
20Radha’s Appeal
(Imitated from the Bengali of Chundidas)
O love, what more shall I, shall Radha speak,
Since mortal words are weak?
In life, in death,
25In being and in breath
No other lord but thee can Radha seek.
Songs to Myrtilla
About thy feet the mighty net is wound
Wherein my soul they bound;
30Myself resigned
To servitude my mind;
My heart than thine no sweeter slavery found.
I, Radha, thought; through the three worlds my gaze
I sent in wild amaze;
35I was alone.
None called me “Radha!”, none;
I saw no hand to clasp, no friendly face.
I sought my father’s house; my father’s sight
Was empty of delight;
40No tender friend
Her loving voice would lend;
My cry came back unanswered from the night.
Therefore to this sweet sanctuary I brought
My chilled and shuddering thought.
45Ah, suffer, sweet,
To thy most faultless feet
That I should cling unchid; ah, spurn me not!
Spurn me not, dear, from thy beloved breast,
A woman weak, unblest.
50Thus let me cling,
Thus, thus about my king
And thus remain caressing and caressed.
I, Radha, thought; without my life’s sweet lord,
— Strike now thy mightiest chord —
55I had no power
To live one simple hour;
His absence slew my soul as with a sword.