THE CLOUD MESSENGER.

FROM THE SANSCRIT OF CALIDASA.

Argument.

A demigod, who was a servant of the Hindu God of Wealth, Cuvera, having offended his lord, was punished by twelve months banishment from his home and wife. At the period of the opening of the poem, he is supposed to have passed eight months in solitary seclusion. At the commencement of the rainy season he addresses himself to one of the clouds which was moving towards his late residence, and desires it to waft his sorrows to a beloved and regretted wife.

-To the inner mansion bend thy sight,
Diffusing round a mild and quivering light;
As when through evening shades soft flashes play,
Where the bright fire-fly wings his glittering way.
There in the fane a beauteous creature stands,
The first best work of the Creator's hands;
Whose slender limbs inadequately bear

A full orbed bosom and a weight of care; [show,
Whose teeth like pearls, whose lips like Bimbas
And fawnlike eyes still tremble as they glow.
Lone as the widow'd Chacraváci mournst,
Her faithful memory to her husband turns,
And sad and silent shalt thou find my wife,
Half of my soul, and partner of my life;
Nipp'd by chill sorrow as the flowers enfold
Their shrinking petals from the withering cold.
The bimba bears a red fruit.

+ This bird, in the poetry of the Hindoos, is their turtle dove, for constancy and connubial affection, with the singular circumstance of the pair being doomed for ever to nocturnal separation, for having offended one of the Hindu divinities.

I view her now! long weeping swells her eyes, And those dear lips are dried by parching sighs; Sad on her hand her pallid cheek declines,

And half unseen through veiling tresses shines; As when a darkling night the moon enshrouds, A few faint rays break straggling through the clouds.

Now at thy sight I mark fresh sorrow flow, And sacred sacrifice augments her woe*; I mark her now, with fancy's aid, retrace This wasted figure and this haggard face; Now from her favourite bird she seeks relief, And tells the tuneful sárica + her grief, Mourns o'er the feather'd prisoner's kindred fate, And fondly questions of its absent mate.

In vain the lute for harmony is strung,
And round the robe-neglected shoulder slung;
And falling accents strive to catch, in vain,
Our race's old commemorative strain:

The faltering tear, that from reflection springs,
Corrodes incessantly the silvery strings;
Recurring woe still pressing on the heart,
The skilful hand forgets its grateful art,
And idly wandering strikes no measured tone,
But wakes a sad wild warbling of its own.

At times such solace animates her mind

As widow'd wives in cheerless absence find;

* The sacrifice to be performed to render the gods propitious; or a sacrifice usually performed by women at the beginning of the rainy season.

+ A small bird, better known by the name of maina. It is represented as a female, while the parrot is described as a male bird; and as these two have, in all Hindu tales, the faculty of buman speech, they are constantly introduced, the one inveighing against the faults of the male sex, and the other exposing the defects of the female.

She counts the flowers now faded on the floor, That graced with monthly piety the door *; Thence reckon'd up the period since from home, And, far from her, was I compell'd to roam; And deeming fond my term of exile run, Conceives my homeward journey is begun.

Lighten'd by tasks like these the day proceeds, But much I dread a bitterer night succeeds: When thou shalt view her on the earth's cold breast, Or lonely couch of separation rest,

Disturb'd by tears those pallid cheeks that burn,
And visions of her dearer half's return.
Now seeking sleep, a husband to restore,
And waking now his absence to deplore;
Deprived of slumber by returning woes,
Or mock'd by idle phantoms of repose;

Till her slight form, consumed by ceaseless pain,
Shows like the moon fast hastening to its wane.
Crisp from the purifying wave her hair
Conceals the charms, no more her pleasing care;
And with neglected nails her fingers chase,
Fatigued, the tresses wandering o'er her face.
Firm winds the fillett, as it first was wove,
When fate relentless forced me from my love;
And never flowery wreaths nor costly pearls
Must hope to decorate the fetter'd curls;
Loosed by no hand, until the law divine
Accomplish'd, that delighted hand is mine.

The Hindus pay a species of adoration to many inanimate objects: amongst others, the doorway or door post receives such homage as is rendered by hanging up a flower or garland there once a month.

+ The veni is a braid, into which the long hair of the Hindoostanee women is collected, when they have lost their husbands.

Dull as the flower when clouds through ether

sweep,

Nor wholly waking, nor resign'd to sleep,
Her heavy eyelids languidly unclose

To where the moon its silvery radiance throws
Mild through the chamber; once a welcome light,
Avoided now and hateful to her sight.

Those charms that glittering ornaments oppress,
Those restless slumbers that proclaim distress,
That slender figure worn by grief severe
Shall surely gain thy sympathizing tear :
For the soft breast is swift to overflow,
In moist compassion, at the claims of woe.
The same fond wife as when compell'd to part,
Her love was mine, I still possess her heart:
Her well known faith this confidence affords,
Nor vain conceit suggests unmeaning words;
No boaster I! and time shall quickly teach,
With observation join'd, how just my speech.
O'er her left limbs shall glad pulsations play,
And signs auspicious indicate thy way;
And like the lotus trembling on the tide,
While its deep roots the sportive fish divide,
So tremulous throbs the eye's enchanting ball,
Loose o'er whose lids neglected tresses fall.

*

Soothed by expected bliss should gentle sleep O'er her soft limbs and frame exhausted creep, Delay thy tidings, and suspend thy flight, And watch in silent patience through the night; Withhold thy thunders, lest the awful sound Her slumber banish, and her dreams confound;

* Palpitations in the left limbs, and a throbbing in the left eye, are considered as auspicious omens when occurring in the female.

Where her fond arms, like winding shrubs, she

flings

Around my neck, and to my bosom clings.

Behold her rising with the early morn, Fair as the flower that opening buds adorn; And strive to animate her drooping mind With cooling rain-drops and refreshing wind: Restrain thy lightnings, as her timid gaze Shrinks from the bright intolerable blaze; And murmuring softly, gentle sounds prepare, With words like these to raise her from despair. 'Oh wife adored! whose lord still lives for thee, Behold his friend and messenger in me; We now approach thy beauteous presence fraught With many a tender and consoling thought; Such tasks are mine; where absent lovers stray, I speed the wanderer lightly on his way; And with my thunders teach his lagging mind New hopes, the braid of absence* to unbind !' As beauteous Maithili+, with glad surprise, Bent on the Son of Air her opening eyes; So my fair partner's pleased uplifted gaze, Thy friendly presence with delight surveys; She smiles, she speaks, her misery foregoes, And deep attention on thy words bestows: For such dear tidings happiness impart, Scarce less than mutual meeting to the heart.

Being, of years protracted, aid thy friend, And with my words thine own suggestions blend;

* See second note in page 218.

+ Maithili is a name of Sita, derived from the place of her nativity. The allusion relates to the discovery of her by Rama's envoy, Hanuman, the monkey chief, said to be the son of the wind.