Just Sublime: Kalidasa's Kumarasambhava

An extract from Canto 8:

See, my belovèd, how the sun

  With beams that o’er the water shake

From western skies has now begun

  A bridge of gold across the lake.

Upon the very tree-tops sway  

The peacocks; even yet they hold

And drink the dying light of day,  

Until their fans are molten gold.

The water-lily closes, but  With wonderful reluctancy;

As if it troubled her to shut  

Her door of welcome to the bee.

The steeds that draw the sun's bright car,  

With bended neck and falling plume

And drooping mane, are seen afar  

To bury day in ocean's gloom.

The sun is down, and heaven sleeps:  

Thus every path of glory ends;

As high as are the scalèd steeps,  

The downward way as low descends.

Stunning imagery. The scale of it is mindboggling. The story is interesting - about Shiva and Parvati's son, who is born to destroy the demon Taraka.

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