As, in a dream of thee, they watch me spread Naught but the yielding air of night instead Then see me start and sigh and wake to woe again. LXXXVIII. A welcome herald from my darling comes The breeze that from the snowy mountain springs, For it may be its breath has fondly played A kiss upon her lips, and fanned her in the shade. LXXXIX. But yield not, love, to dark despair, nor think Some flowers of hope amid the desert bloom: No constant brightness, no perpetual gloom; But circling as a wheel, and never still, Now down, and now above, all must their fate fulfil. XC. Four months remain, and when that age is fled, Then ends my banishment and all our pain: When Vishnu rises from his serpent bed' Where lapt in sleep the Bow-armed God has lain, Thy lover speeds to home and thee again : The moon of autumn with serener glow His silver influence on our nights shall rain, And our rapt souls with joy shall overflow More exquisitely sweet for all remembered woe. "The serpent couch is the great snake Ananta, upon which Vishnu, or, as he is here called, the Holder of the bow Sarnga (the horn-bow), reclines, during four months, from the 11th of Asharha to the 11th of Kartik; or, as it has occurred in 1813 (the year in which the first edition was printed), from the 23rd of June to the 26th of October. The sleep of Vishnu, during the four months of the periodical rains in Hindustan, seems to bear an emblematical relation to that season. It has been compared to the Egyptian Hieroglyphical account of the sleep of Horus, typical of the annual overflow of the Nile, by the late Mr. Paterson, in his ingenious Essay on the Origin of the Hindu Religion. Asiatic Researches, vol. viii." H. H. WILSON. XCI. Once more I see thee, but no more alone, Thy senses steept in dews of slumber, lie, With thy fond arms around thy husband thrown, Thou startest, weeping, and I ask thee why Thy soul is troubled when thy lord is nigh. 'Traitor,' thou sayest, as a smile and tear Plays on thy lip and glistens in thine eye, dream appear, 'Faithless I saw thee in my Whispering tales of love into another's ear.' XCII. But, dark-eyed beauty, rest thou ever sure And soothe thee with the trust that love like mine Will live unchanging on till time shall end; Burn with a flame that ne'er shall know decline, But, fed with hope, each day shall yet more brightly shine.' XCIII. "Wilt thou, dear Cloud, through regions far away, This loving message to my darling bear? Silent art thou, yet not in vain I pray ; For when the Rain-birds, in the sultry air, Crave the cool shower of thee, thou dost not care And their faint strength and flagging wings repair: Deeming the granted wish best answer to a friend. XCIV. Thus, faithful herald, having cheered her heart Who mourns in joyless solitude her fate, From the high forehead of that hill depart Of Siva, rends the rock with joy elate : Some comfort, hearing of my darling's state, Ere my soul sink beneath its weight of woe Like a frail jasmine-bud scorcht by the summer's glow. XCV. So shall my thanks repay thy gentle deed, So by the breezes wafted, shalt thou speed To pleasant regions where thou fain wouldst be, There rest delighted or there wander free ; May the sweet rain ne'er fail thee; and thy bride, Flashing upon thy breast or sporting at thy side.” XCVI. The mourner ceased; the airy envoy heard; That led his yielding spirit to relent, And made him, ere the term was nigh, restore The exile languishing in banishment, And freely bade him, all his trials o'er, Live with his love again with joy for evermore. |