Canto 3O Co¨ıl, Co¨ıl
Book 1. Part One - England and Baroda 1883 – 1898
Songs to Myrtilla
Lovelier girl than sees the stream
Naked, Naiad of a dream,
Whiter Dryad than men see
5Dancing round the lone oak-tree,
Flower and most enchanting birth
Of ten ages of the earth!
The Graces in thy body move
And in thy lips the ruby hue of Love.
10O Co¨ıl, Co¨ıl
O co¨ıl, honied envoy of the spring,
Cease thy too happy voice, grief’s record, cease:
For I recall that day of vernal trees,
The soft asoca’s bloom, the laden winds
15And green felicity of leaves, the hush,
The sense of Nature living in the woods.
Only the river rippled, only hummed
The languid murmuring bee, far-borne and slow,
Emparadised in odours, only used
20The ringdove his divine heart-moving speech;
But sweetest to my pleased and singing heart
Thy voice, O co¨ıl, in the peepel tree.
O me! for pleasure turned to bitterest tears!
O me! for the swift joy, too great to live,
25That only bloomed one hour! O wondrous day,
That crowned the bliss of those delicious years.
The vernal radiance of my lover’s lips
Was shut like a red rose upon my mouth,
His voice was richer than the murmuring leaves,
30His love around me than the summer air.
Five hours entangled in the co¨ıl’s cry
Lay my beloved twixt my happy breasts.
O voice of tears! O sweetness uttering death!
O lost ere yet that happy cry was still!