Poem Spam

[brigdh]

The Gitagovinda by Jayadeva (if I have to write a paper about it, I'm certainly going to spam livejournal with it)


Wind perfumes the forests with fine pollen
Shaken loose from newly blossomed jasmine
As it blows Love's cactus-fragrant breath
To torture every heart it touches here.

Crying sounds of cuckoos, mating on mango shoots
Shaken as bees seek honey scents of opening buds,
Raise fever in the ears of lonely travelers-
Somehow they survive these days
By tasting the mood of lover's union
In climaxing moments of meditation.

***

Night is putting black kohl on their eyes,
Tamala-flower clusters on their ears,
Dark lotus wreathes on their heads,
Leaf designs of musk on their breasts.
In every thicket, friend,
The night's dark cherished cloak
Embraces limbs of beautiful adulteresses
Whose hearts rush to meet their lovers.

As saffron-bright bodies
Of women rushing to meet their lovers
Streak the night
With clusters of light,
Night spreads darkness as dense
As tamala leaves,
Making a touchstone
To test the gold of love.