Seven Hundred Elegant Verses. Govardhana
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coherent whole. It is precisely this element of tension, anticipation, expectation, struggle, and eventual surprise that a smooth-flowing translation will destroy.
Like a parrot its cage that is made of wooden twigs, growing bigger day by day, it tears apart the heart of my beloved—grief with the arrows of Kama as its primary painful cause ⋮ with its beak that is as sharp as Kama’s arrows.
A possible alternative rendering (e.g. “cutting to pieces” for “tearing apart”) has to be kept in mind, since the basis of the comparison is not yet revealed. What precisely grief does to the heart of the beloved remains in suspense. But ________
what does grief do that can be compared to the parrot’s ac- tion?
To express in a brutalist manner what is going on here, the translation ought to be something like the following.
Like a parrot wooden twigs cage, every day increasing my demolishes beloved’s heart grief Kama’s arrows sharp mouth.
This would no doubt present a challenge to any reader or listener, but I doubt that it would serve much of a purpose for the kind of enterprise undertaken in this book. Alternatively, this is what an “elegant,” smoothly flowing translation could look like.
Grief, with the arrows of Kama as its primary painful cause, must be increasing day by day and will be breaking my beloved’s heart, like a parrot whose beak is as sharp as Kama’s arrows, when, growing day by day, he bites his way through the cage made of wooden twigs.
This is the compromise I have adopted in many places, where the poet uses the syntactical and psychological structure analyzed above.
The many allusions to myth and other features of Indian culture, to say nothing of the use of puns and poetic conventions, make reading the “Seven Hundred Elegant Verses” somewhat challenging; this is particularly true of the first thirty-eight verses of the Prelude. For the rest, however, the adventurous reader is encouraged initially to ________
try to go it alone. For a fuller understanding, notes on most verses can be found at the back.
Notes
1Translated by Lee Siegel, Clay Sanskrit Library, New York: New York University Press & JJC Foundation, 2009.
2Translated by Sir James Mallinson in “Messenger Poems” (Meghaduta, Pavanaduta & Hamsaduta), Clay Sanskrit Library, New York: New York University Press & JJC Foundation, 2006.
Bibliography
Aryasaptasati with the Commentary of Ananta-Pandita. Ed. Durgapra- sada and Kasinatha Panduranga Paraba. Bombay: The “Nirnaya-sagara” Press, 1886 (Kavyamala 1).
Aryasaptasati of Govardhana. Ed. Ramakant Tripathi Varanasi: Chow- khamba Vidyabhawan, 1965 (Vidyabhawan Sanskrit Granthamala 127).
Aryasaptasati, Parvatiya Visvesvara Pandita with his own commentary. Hyderabad: Sanskrit Academy, 1966 (Sanskrit Academy Series no. 13).
A. Weber, Uber das Saptacatakam des Hala. Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus, 1881 (Abhandlungen fur die Kunde des Morgenlandes, vii/4).
V
ictory to Shiva’s body, adorned with ashes, its hair standing on end at the thrill of touching Uma’s hand! Although nothing but ash was left of Kama, here he seems to sprout to new life.*
In the morning, Shiva was told by a terrified Brahma: “Don’t spit that poison out! Keep it down!” Victory to him, who got embarrassed at having his lips stained with lamp-black.*
With the poison decorating his throat resembling a dagger tied to it and lying at the feet of his beloved, that enemy of passion appears to be surrendering to Kama with his cruel arrows. Victory to that Shiva!*
Victory to Shiva’s sidelong glance! When he was lying prostrate at the feet of his beloved, that glance from his forehead, decorated by the crescent moon and framed by fine eye-lashes, looked as if Kama had placed a thorny ketaka flower as arrow on his bow.*
v
His matted hair are its filaments, the Ganges its nectar, the garland of skulls the seeds out of which it sprouted, and the poison in his throat the mud in which it grows: Victory to Shiva’s face, which is indeed a lotus!*
Victory to Shiva! Vijaya made fun of him when he did not even realize that the snake—his bracelet—was drinking the handful of water he was offering to Dawn, since his mind was engrossed in Gauri’s face.*
He spilled it as his hands broke contact when the sight of Gauri’s reflected face made him tremble; but his profuse sweat filled them up again. Victory to Shiva’s handful of water!*
His moon is beautified by contact with the dawn that is the lac on the foot of his angered beloved; his rock-like neck has a golden line, as if it were a touchstone, from the gold of her bracelet. Victory to Shiva!*
Victory to the digit of Hara’s moon! It filled out the half-moons of Gauri’s toe-nails, added a second anklet to her ankle, and turned into a chain of love around her lower leg.*
x
May you receive blessings from the eye of Lotus-Eyed! It was covered by Shri’s hand, but in the form of the lotus it re-emerged from the hollow of his navel, as if to look at her thighs.*
Victory to Vishnu’s chest! Black, it acquires a redness from the saffron of Shri’s breasts, and since it is decorated by the sun-like kaustubha, it looks like the sky at dawn.*
Victory to Vishnu’s chest! It bears the kaustubha and thus reflects the body of his beloved; when Lakshmi looks into it as if into a mirror, she seems to be making love topsy-turvy.*
Victory to Vishnu’s foot! When with its teasing toes it was tickling Lakshmi’s navel, it made her look like Him-with-the-lotus-in-his-navel.*
May the line of hair on Vishnu’s abdomen shelter you against affliction! Since its upper part joins the shri·vatsa tuft of hair, it looks like the shade of the lotus rising from the navel on its long stalk.*
Victory to Vishnu with the horse’s head! He took possession of the Veda that enjoins seven sacrifices as if it were a vina which uses seven strings and sang as sweetly as the horse-faced kinnaras.*
xv
Victory to the great Boar! He dragged the Earth out of the ocean’s belly, although she had been immersed there for a long time, and with her, like its entrails, the mass of serpents.*
I worship Vishnu in Serpent form, the potter of the universe! On his expansive circle ⋮ wheel of hoods, the Earth appears like an earthen pot.*
Victory to the pole that is the leg of wrathful Chandi! When her lover touches its ⋮ her foot with his head, it appears like the victory column of Kama who defeats all, even Shiva.*
Victory to the face of Parvati! When she makes love in the male position, it makes Shiva too look as if he had a long lotus growing from his navel.*
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Victory to the breasts of Parvati! Smilingly Shiva had put his hand on them, and then Skanda, being upset by a suspicion that Ganesha was sitting on her lap, pulled off the cloth covering them.*
Victory to that wrathful Chandi! Before her feet has fallen, though used to embracing her, the moon-crested one, repelled by a mere “hm.” Thus he resembles an arrow of Kama at whose tip a half-moon shaped blade has been fixed, which was aimed at her throat, shot with a twang of the bow, and has fallen at her feet.*
Victory to Lakshmi! Out of embarrassment she looked askance when the gods and demons made fun of her, since her trickster husband, on whom she had placed the garland of selection, turned into Mohini.*
I praise those demons