happiness to those who are happy with their lovers, but affliction to the lonely who are already afflicted.38 Among the neytal poems, the kali odes make plentiful references to Nature. Here is the translation of one of the kali odes, which describes the events of Nature at sunset. The sun having swallowed up its own rays which illuminated the wide world has reached the mountain,
| Darkness spreads in colour of him of the unconquerable "Chakra" weapon,
| The pretty moon dispels it with her own light.
| Water-flowers on stalks fold themselves like eyes that close in slumber
| The trees incline their heads in sleep like men who have heard their own praises,
| The creepers open their buds like them that wish to smile.
The bees make music like the small bamboo flute,
The birds fly to their fledgelings,
The kine with thoughts of their calves hasten to the fold,
The beasts seek their lairs, the vesper priests greet the evening.
The maids commence lighting the rosy-flamed lamps.
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Having described the evening, the heroine adds that an hour which commences taking the life out of women separated from their lovers can hardly be called evening. It really is morning for them.39 The apostrophes to dusk, to the moon, to the ocean, to the winds upbraiding them for their cruelty in making poignant at this hour, or for their want of sympathy with the heroine in her sufferings, are many in the neytal poems. Often the literary effect is heightened by bringing about a contrast between the happiness of Nature, of bird and beast, and the lonely un-happiness to which the heroine has been condemned. Since sunset is an hour when the memories crowd in and the heroine's sadness is intensified, all her plaintive ire is against the hour that has come once more to torture her: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 38Kali; 118; Cfr. FRANCIS THOMPSON,Ode to the Setting Sun: “Thou dost thy dying so triumphally . . .
Lo! this loud, lackeying praise
Will stay behind to greet the usurping moon". |
39Kali; 119; 38. Cf. Macbeth: light thickens, and the crow makes wing to the rooky wood; good things of day begin to droop and drowse. |