If goodness lead him not, yet weariness
May toss him to My breast.

-George Herbert


Tuesday, June 14, 2011

NIGHTS OF JASMINE AND THUNDER

Nights of jasmine & thunder,
torn petals,
wind in the tangled kadamba trees-
nothing has changed.
Spring comes again and we've
simply grown older.
In the cane groves of Narmada River
he deflowered my
girlhood before we were
married.
And I grieve for those far-away nights
we played at love
by the water.

- Shilabhattarika, 9th century (translation from the Sanskrit by Andrew Schelling)

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