Canto 17Radha’s Complaint in Absence
Book 1. Part One - England and Baroda 1883 – 1898
(Imitated from the Bengali of Chundidas)
O heart, my heart, a heavy pain is thine!
What land is that where none doth know
Love’s cruel name nor any word of sin?
5My heart, there let us go.
Friend of my soul, who then has called love sweet?
Laughing I called from heavenly spheres
The sweet love close; he came with flying feet
And turned my life to tears.
10What highborn girl, exiling virgin pride,
Has wooed love to her with a laugh?
His fires shall burn her as in harvest-tide
The mowers burn the chaff.
O heart, my heart, merry thy sweet youth ran
15In fields where no love was; thy breath
Is anguish, since his cruel reign began.
What other cure but death?