Kavyadarsha 1
English (machine translation) 1
- Language
- English
Contents
- 1.105 — 1 part
1.1
May Sarasvatī, all-white, the female swan in the lotus cluster of the four-faced [Brahmā's] mouths, / delight forever in my mind.
1.2
Having gathered earlier treatises and observed poetic practice, / the definition of poetry is composed by us according to our ability.
1.3
In this world, the ordinary conduct of civilized people, both taught and self-taught, / proceeds entirely through the grace of words alone.
1.4
This entire threefold world would become pitch darkness, / if the light named speech were not to shine throughout the cycle of existence.
1.5
Behold: having obtained the verbal mirror, the reflection of ancient kings' glory / does not perish of its own accord even in their absence.
1.6
Speech, properly employed, is traditionally considered by the wise to be a wish-granting cow; / but improperly employed, that very [speech] declares the bovine nature of the user.
1.7
Therefore, even a slight defect in poetry is not to be tolerated in any way; / even a beautiful body may be rendered repulsive by a single spot of vitiligo.
1.8
How can a person ignorant of treatises distinguish poetic excellences and poetic defects? / Does a blind man have competence in perceiving differences of visual forms?
1.9
Therefore, having in mind the education of people, the wise / have composed the rules of practice for the diverse poetic dictions of speech.
1.10
By them both the body of poetry and the ornaments have been demonstrated. / The body of poetry, for its part, is a series of words bounded by the intended sense.
1.11
It is established as threefold indeed: verse, prose, and mixed form. / Verse has four metrical lines, and it is twofold: syllabic meter and moraic meter.
1.12
Its entire exposition has been demonstrated in metrical science; / that knowledge is a boat for those wishing to enter the deep ocean of poetry.
1.13
The isolated stanza, stanza-group, anthology, and thematic collection: such a विस्तार of verse, / being of the nature of parts of a canto-composed poem, is not treated [here].
1.14
A canto-composed poem is called a great court epic; its definition [is as follows]: / its opening is a benediction, an act of homage, or else an indication of the subject matter.
1.15
It originates in an epic narrative or other worthy source; / it is based on the fruits of the four aims of human life, and has a clever and elevated hero.
1.16
With descriptions of cities, oceans, mountains, seasons, and the rising of the moon and sun; / with games in gardens and water, drinking parties, and love festivities;
1.17
with love-in-separation, weddings, and descriptions of the birth of sons; / also with counsel, envoys, marches to battle, combat, and the hero's triumphs;
1.18
it is ornamented, uncompressed, continuous with aesthetic sentiment and poetic emotion, / with cantos that are not overly extensive, in melodious meters, and with good transitions;
1.19
endowed with varied storylines throughout, delighting the world, / well-ornamented poetry endures until the end of a cosmic age.
1.20
Even if deficient in some of these elements, poetry is not flawed, / if the excellence among the components included pleases the connoisseurs.
1.21
Introducing the hero first through his virtues and through him / the vanquishing of his enemies: this is the poetic diction that is naturally beautiful.
1.22
Having described the enemy's lineage, heroism, erudition, and the like, / the recital of the hero's preeminence through his victory over him also delights us.
1.23
Prose is a continuous series of words without metrical lines. Narrative and tale: / these are its two varieties. Of these two, the narrative, it is claimed,
1.24
is to be told only by the hero, while the other [is told] by the hero or by another. / Here there is no fault of boasting of one's own virtues for one who declares actual facts.
1.25
However, lack of uniformity is seen even there, since it is spoken by others; / whether the speaker is another or oneself, what kind of distinguishing criterion is that?
1.26
If the vaktra and aparavaktra [meters] and division into ucchvāsas are the distinguishing / mark of the narrative, then by extension they are found in tales as well.
1.27
Why can there not be entry of vaktra and aparavaktra [meters], like āryā and others? / And divisions such as lambhas are observed; an ucchvāsa is [just] a chapter: what of it?
1.28
Therefore, the category called 'tale' and 'narrative' is marked by two names; / and within this itself the remaining types of narratives will be included.
1.29
Abduction of a maiden, battle, love-in-separation, triumph, and so forth / are just the same as in a canto-composed poem; they are not distinctive excellences.
1.30
A hallmark devised by the poet's intention is not flawed elsewhere either; / for what is not a door to accomplishing the intended purpose for skilled minds?
1.31
The mixed forms are plays and the like; their detailed treatment is elsewhere. / A certain [composition] composed of prose and verse is designated as a campū.
1.32
Furthermore, this verbal domain is said by the noble to be of four kinds: / Sanskrit, Prakrit, Apabhraṃśa, and mixed.
1.33
Sanskrit is indeed the divine speech expounded by the great seers; / Prakrit has manifold varieties: derived from it, identical to it, and regional.
1.34
They consider the language based on Mahārāṣṭra to be the preeminent Prakrit, / an ocean of jewels of fine sayings, of which the Setubandha and others consist.
1.35
Śaurasenī, Gauḍī, Lāṭī, and others of the sort / attain the status of Prakrit in literary usage.
1.36
The speeches of the Ābhīras and others in poems are remembered as Apabhraṃśa; / in the treatises, whatever is other than Sanskrit is spoken of as Apabhraṃśa.
1.37
A canto-composed poem and the like are in Sanskrit; that which is in skandhaka and other [meters] is Prakrit; / osara and the like are Apabhraṃśa, while drama and the like are mixed.
1.38
For a tale is composed in all languages and in Sanskrit; / they speak of the Bṛhatkathā, full of wonderful contents, as composed in Paiśācī.
1.39
Lāsya, chalita, śampā, and the like are for viewing, while the other / is strictly for hearing; thus this twofold path has also been declared.
1.40
There are many poetic dictions of words, subtly differentiated from one another; / among them, the Vaidarbha and Gauḍa dictions are described, having clear differences.
1.41
Cohesion, lucidity, evenness, sweetness, tenderness, / explicitness of meaning, elevation, vigor, grace, and metaphorical transference:
1.42
these are remembered as the ten poetic excellences, the life-breaths of the Vaidarbha diction. / Their opposite is generally seen in the path of the Gauḍa.
1.43
Cohesive is that which is untouched by laxity, abounding in unaspirated syllables; / lax is such as 'mālatīmālā lolālikalilā' (a jasmine garland tangled with restless bees).
1.44
Out of an intention for alliteration, that is favored by the Gauḍas; because of the gravity of the verbal composition, / the Vaidarbha [version is]: 'mālatīdāma laṅghitaṃ bhramarair' (the jasmine garland traversed by bees).
1.45
Endowed with lucidity is speech possessing well-known meaning, pleasing to the understanding, / as in: 'the spot possessing the luster of a blue lotus extends the moon's charm.'
1.46
Regarding it as learned, even an expression that is not widely accepted is favored by the Gauḍas, / as in: 'the white-rayed one whose mark resembles an exceedingly white water-born flower.'
1.47
[The poetic excellence] evenness is non-unevenness across verbal compositions; these [compositions] are soft, harsh, or middling, / being derived from arrangements of phonemes that are soft, harsh, or mixed.
1.48
"Noisy with the chatter of cuckoos, the Malayan breeze approaches me, / sprinkled with clear water-drops from splashing cascades of spring-water."
1.49
"Fragrant with affection for sandal trees, the gentle Malayan breeze, / its arrogance checked, contends with the breath from the mouths of noble women."
1.50
Disregarding such unevenness, looking only to the pomp of semantic ornaments, / the eastern path of poetry flourished.
1.51
Sweetness is possessing aesthetic sentiment in word, and the presence of aesthetic sentiment in subject matter as well, / by which the wise are intoxicated as bees are with honey.
1.52
When [a word] is experienced through whatever phonetic audition as identical [to another], / proximity of words having such a form, endowed with alliteration, brings forth aesthetic sentiment.
1.53
"When this king, beloved of the Brahmins, gained royal fortune, / from that time onward there arose a festival of dharma in this world."
1.54
This is disregarded by the Gauḍas, but alliteration is dear to them; / yet even more than alliteration, this [absence of harsh repetition] is generally sought by the Vaidarbhas.
1.55
Alliteration is the repetition of phonemes within metrical quarters and within words, / provided there is not too great a distance, which awakens impressions of previous experience.
1.56
"In the moon, the crest-jewel of the autumn night, displaying the charm of a cluster of jasmine, / the mark resembling sapphire bears the beauty of a black bee."
1.57
"Look, timid girl, at this lovely lunar disc in the sky, / ready to mercilessly slay my heart that is overcome by the god of love."
1.58
Thus they desire alliteration whose phonetic audition has no overly distant interval; / but not like: "The moon is like the lotus-mouth of a woman."
1.59
"Love is cruel, the beloved is wicked, [our] body is emaciated, and anger has vanished; / pride is fallen, passion is increased, delusion has arisen, and [our] vital breaths are gone."
1.60
Such [verses] produce harshness and laxity of verbal composition; / hence the southerners do not employ alliteration in this manner.
1.61
A repetition whose domain is a cluster of phonemes is known as chime; / but that is not uniformly sweet, and therefore will be expounded later.
1.62
Granted, every ornament infuses aesthetic sentiment into the meaning; / nonetheless, absence of vulgarity bears this burden to a greater degree.
1.63
"O girl, why do you not love me, who am desiring you?" / In this way, this vulgar substance of meaning produces tastelessness.
1.64
"Granted, fair-eyed one, the outcaste Love is merciless toward me; / yet happily he bears no malice toward you"—such non-vulgar meaning conveys aesthetic sentiment.
1.65
There is vulgarity in word as well, and it arises from mentioning what is impolite, / as in the word beginning with ya- in the depiction of lovemaking.
1.66
Or through the junction of words, or through the sentence-meaning itself, / whatever induces an obscene sense is vulgar, as in: "she who is dear to you."
1.67
Or: "Having struck the ass, the vigorous man rested"; / such things they do not praise in either of the two poetic dictions.
1.68
[Words like] "sister," "revered lady," and the like are approved everywhere. / Thus sweetness has been analyzed; now tenderness is described.
1.69
What consists mostly of non-harsh syllables is accepted here as tenderness; / yet the poetic defect of laxity of verbal composition has also been shown in what is entirely soft.
1.70
"Forming wheels of their tail-feathers, with sweet songs from their throats, / peacocks dance in the season garlanded with clouds."
1.71
Here the meaning is not at all forceful, nor is the ornament of such a kind; / yet solely through tenderness this reaches the minds of the discerning.
1.72
Under the idea that it is "brilliant," what is difficult to pronounce is composed abundantly by others: / "The faction of the kṣatriyas was destroyed completely in an instant."
1.73
Explicitness of meaning is the non-remoteness of the sense, as in: / "The earth was raised up by Hari from the ocean reddened with the blood of serpents crushed by his hooves."
1.74
If it were stated merely as: "The earth was raised up by the great boar from the red ocean," / then the reference to the serpents' blood would require extrapolation.
1.75
They do not hold such [extrapolation] in high esteem in either of the two poetic dictions; / for comprehension that violates linguistic propriety is not charming.
1.76
When, upon an utterance, an elevated quality is understood, / that is called elevation; by that the path of poetry is endowed with a master.
1.77
"The plaintive gaze of suppliants, having once fallen upon your face, / remaining in that state, O king, looks upon no other's face."
1.78
Thus in this statement the excellence of generosity is clearly discerned; / by this very method let other cases of similar reasoning be inferred.
1.79
Elevation is considered by some to be endowed with laudable epithets, / as in: "a lotus for sport," "a lake for amusement," "golden armlets," and so on.
1.80
Vigor is an abundance of compounds; this is the very life of prose; / even in verse it is the single recourse for the non-southerners.
1.81
Through the mixing of many and few heavy and light [syllables], / it is seen to have varied varieties in narrative and other genres.
1.82
"With a couch of all the sun's rays strewn over the summit of the setting mountain, / the western quarter is like a woman with lovely reddish garments placed upon swollen breasts."
1.83
Thus even in verse the easterners compose vigorous words; / others, however, desire a vigor of speech that is unconfused and pleasing, as in:
1.84
"With the garment of evening sunlight clinging to the slopes of her breast-like clouds, / whom will the western quarter not make afflicted with love?"
1.85
Grace is pleasing to the whole world because it does not transgress mundane realities; / and that is seen both in expressions of everyday report and in poetic descriptions.
1.86
"Those homes indeed are true homes which a heap of austerity such as yourself / honors with purifying dust from your feet."
1.87
"O woman of faultless limbs, for these two swelling breasts of yours, / the space between the creepers of your arms is not sufficient."
1.88
Thus this very thing, being plausible and refined by exceptional expression, / is pleasing to everyone who conforms to the ways of the world.
1.89
When a meaning intended to be expressed is superimposition taken to an extreme as if exceeding the world, / the witty are delighted by it, but not ordinary folk.
1.90
"From this day forth our home is to be revered like an abode of the gods, / its sins wholly washed away by the falling of the dust from your feet."
1.91
"The Creator created the sky small, without considering at all / this suchlike future swelling of your breasts."
1.92
This is called hyperbole; this is cherished by the Gauḍas; / but the procedure set forth earlier is the essence of the other course.
1.93
Where an attribute belonging to one thing is properly imposed upon another by one respecting worldly conventions, / that is remembered as metaphorical transference, as follows:
1.94
"The night-lotuses close their eyes, and the day-lotuses open their eyes"; / thus, from the superimposition of the action of the eyes, words designating that are obtained.
1.95
Words such as 'spat', 'thrown up', and 'vomited', when relying on a secondary figurative function,
are exceedingly beautiful, whereas elsewhere they step into the rank of the vulgar.
1.96
"Having drunk the sparks of fire spat out by the sun's rays,
the lotuses seem to vomit them back with mouths that throw up red pollen."
1.97
Thus [it is] charming; but 'the young bride spits' is uncharming.
And the transference of more than one property at the same time is recorded, as in:
1.98
"Exhausted by the heavy burden of their pregnancy, groaning,
these rows of clouds lie down upon the lap of the mountain plateau."
1.99
Lying upon the lap of a friend, groaning, heaviness, weariness—
thus, even though many, these attributes of a pregnant woman are displayed here.
1.100
This excellence named metaphorical transference is the very quintessence of poetry;
the whole caravan of poets follows along this path.
1.101
Thus the two poetic dictions have been distinguished through the definition of their true natures;
but their varieties, abiding as they do in each individual poet, cannot be told.
1.102
Great is the difference in sweetness among sugarcane, milk, jaggery, and the like;
even so, it cannot be explained even by Sarasvatī.
1.103
Inborn genius, learning that is vast and spotless,
and unflagging application—these are the cause of poetry's rich treasure.
1.104
Even if marvelous genius, tied to the quality of impressions from past lives, is absent,
speech, when worshiped through learning and diligence, surely bestows some favor.
1.105
Therefore, with drowsiness cast off, Sarasvatī must indeed be unremittingly worshiped with toil by those desiring fame;
even if poetic power is slender, people who have made the effort are able to disport themselves in the assemblies of the cultured.
1.105.p1
Thus ends the first chapter, named 'The Distinction of Poetic Dictation', in the Mirror of Poetry composed by Ācārya Daṇḍin.
Commentaries (1)
- Hṛdayaṅgamā — Sanskrit
Other recensions (1)
- Text of S. K. Belvalkar (1924), partial — Sanskrit
Linked texts (1)
- Kāvyādarśa — Daṇḍin, Sanskrit