Kavyalankara 1

Having bowed to the universal, omniscient one with actions of mind, speech, and body, / this [work called] Ornament of Poetry will be composed according to my intellect.

The composition of good poetry produces proficiency in dharma, wealth, pleasure, and liberation, / as well as in the arts; and it brings delight and renown.

Like generosity in one who has no wealth, like skill in weapons in an impotent man, / like bold assertiveness in an ignorant man, is knowledge of the treatises in one who is not a poet.

What is prosperity without good conduct? What is the night without the moon? / Bereft of good poetic skill, what kind of verbal cleverness is there?

Even those of dull intellect are able to study a treatise through a teacher's instruction; / poetry, however, is born only rarely in someone endowed with poetic genius.

Even for those who have departed to heaven, having composed good works, / their charming body made of poetry endures free from distress.

And as long as his imperishable renown encompasses heaven and earth, / so long indeed does this virtuous man dwell in the abode of the gods.

Therefore, one who desires renown that lasts as long as the earth stands, / and who has learned what is to be learned, should make an effort regarding the definition of poetry.

Grammar, meter, vocabulary, meaning, tales based on legendary history, / the ways of the world, logic, and the arts—these are to be considered the sources of poetry.

Having understood word and its referent, having paid service to those who know them, / and having examined the compositions of others, one should apply oneself to the making of poetry.

By no means should even a single word with a defect be uttered; / for by defective poetry one is reproached, as if by a bad son.

Not being a poet does not lead to sin, nor to disease, nor to punishment; / bad poetic composition, on the other hand, wise men call death itself.

Metaphor and other poetic figures have been spoken of variously by others; / a woman's face, even though charming, does not shine without adornment.

Others declare metaphor and the like to be external adornment; / they desire the correct derivation of noun- and verb-endings as the ornamentation of speech.

This they call grammatical correctness, but it is not such a derivation of meaning; / for our part, both are accepted, through the division into figures of word and of referent.

Word and meaning together are poetry; it is twofold: prose and verse; / and threefold: Sanskrit, Prakrit, and another, Apabhraṃśa.

Relating deeds that occurred in the past of gods and others, having an invented plot, / and based on arts and treatises: thus it is divided again into four.

Canto-composition, dramatic composition, and likewise historical tale and invented tale, / and unconnected verse and the like: poetry is again stated to be fivefold.

A canto-composition is a court epic; it treats the great deeds of great men; / its words are non-vulgar, meaningful, ornamented with poetic figures, and founded on the noble.

It contains counsel, messengers, marches, battle, and the rise of the hero; / it is endowed with the five dramatic junctures, is not overly in need of commentary, and is rich.

Though expounding the four aims of life, it predominantly imparts instruction in wealth; / it is endowed with worldly human nature and each of all the aesthetic sentiments.

Having first introduced the hero through his lineage, valor, learning, and the like, / one should not describe his slaying just out of a desire to assert the preeminence of another.

If he is not desired to pervade the body of the poem, / and if he does not share in prosperity, then taking him up and praising him at the outset is in vain.

Drama, and genres such as dvipadī, śamyā, rāsaka, and skandhaka, / have been declared dramatic composition; its detailed treatment has been stated by others.

Employed in prose containing words and meanings that are Sanskrit, lucid, and pleasant to hear, / with elevated subject-matter, and divided into chapters—this is considered a historical tale.

In it the hero narrates his own adventures as they happened; / and it contains vaktra and aparavaktra meters, indicating future events at the proper time.

Marked by certain narrations devised according to the poet's intent, / it is endowed with the abduction of a maiden, battle, separation, and triumph.

Not endowed with vaktra and aparavaktra meters, nor having chapters, / composed in Sanskrit or not in Sanskrit, and also sharing in Apabhraṃśa, is an invented tale.

In it his own deeds are narrated by others, but not by the hero; / for how could a well-born person make a display of his own virtues?

Unconnected verse, moreover, consists of mere gāthās, ślokas, and the like; / all of this is accepted as endowed with oblique expression and natural description.

Other wise men think that the Vaidarbha style is something different, / and that it alone is superior; the other is not, even if endowed with good meaning.

"This is the Gauḍa style, but that is the Vaidarbha style"—why should this distinction / be repeated by the unintelligent merely on the principle of following the herd?

If it is objected: "Surely works like the Aśmakavaṃśa are called Vaidarbha"— / let it be so if you wish; a designation is generally applied arbitrarily.

Devoid of rich meaning, lacking oblique expression, clear, straightforward, tender, / distinct, this [so-called Vaidarbha] is like a mere song, pleasing only to the ear.

Endowed with poetic figures, non-vulgar, meaningful, reasoned, and clear, / even the Gauḍa style is better; the Vaidarbha is not otherwise [good].

The charm of utterances is not produced by the mere use of words like nitānta; / expression through oblique meaning and word is accepted as the ornament of speech.

Far-fetched sense, contorted, diverted sense, unexpressive, illogical, / and obscure expression: poets do not employ these.

That is far-fetched sense where the meaning intended by the poets is forcibly arrived at, / not based on the regular usage of words, somehow according to one's own intention.

As in "she is auspicious like Māyā"—and that is a faulty conception; / and as in "by the bamboo-cane-giver" they derive it without standard phraseology.

One should know contorted as that which is separated; diverted sense is as in "at the departure" / when "they abandoned his grief in play", and that is deformed.

Unexpressive is like "the sky is pervaded by the carriers of the enemy of the destroyer of cold"; / an expression not directly established in the expressed meaning is not understood.

Illogical is when messengers are clouds, the wind, the moon, / as well as bees, green pigeons, cakravāka birds, parrots, and the like.

Being speechless or possessing indistinct speech, and roaming over distant regions, / how could they undertake the duty of a messenger?—thus it is not logically fitting.

If, out of longing, someone speaks like a madman, / let it be so; this is extensively employed by the wise.

And obscure expression should never be employed; / even for the wise this does not serve any useful purpose.

May the son of the destroyer of darkness, the cleaver of the mountain, the lord of the heaven-dwellers, the two-eyed one, / smite your foes with his arrows that are seen by the white-eyed ones.

Harsh to the ear, indecorous in meaning, faulty in construction, / and cacophonous: thus they declare poetic defect of speech to be fourfold.

Words such as viṭ, varcas, viṣṭhita, klinna, chinna, vānta, pravṛtti, / pracāra, dharṣita, udgāra, visarga, hada, and yantrita,

hiraṇyaretas, sambādha, pelava, upasthita, aṇḍaja, / vākkāṭa, and the like, are considered expressions harsh to the ear.

On the other hand, [a word] is known as indecorous in meaning when, upon its utterance, an understanding / arises concerning an indecent object by means of words that denote it, as in:

For one who has set out only to strike, stiffened, seeking an opening, / a fall inevitably occurs; his rising again is with difficulty.

When an undesirable sense is formed by the conjunction of two words, / they call that faulty in construction, as in: "He whose ornament is valor" (sa śauryābharaṇo).

And as in ajihladat ("he caused to rejoice"), etc.; they consider that cacophonous. / Master poets do not desire that, nor, according to some, even [the word] gaṇḍa ("cheek").

Yet even an ill-sounding word shines forth through a particular arrangement, / like a dark leaf bound in the midst of garlands.

Even an improper word assumes beauty from the charm of its support, / like soiled collyrium applied to the eyes of a lovely woman.

"This face of yours has pale cheeks (āpāṇḍugaṇḍam), O lotus-eyed one!" / From connection with the word pāṇḍu, gaṇḍa is correctly used, as stated.

In this same manner, other words too should be understood as suitable though improper, / as in: "of elephants whose cheeks are moistened (viklinnagaṇḍānāṃ) with flows of rut."

As in: "Four hundred elephants whose temples are moistened by rut (madaklinnakapolānāṃ)," / so one should employ the less good and the better word.

"This fragrant flower is to be taken; this rustic one is to be put aside; this, when arranged, bestows beauty; this is its place, this is its": / just as a garland-maker, discerning well, fashions a garland, exactly so should expression be employed in poetry with attentive mind.

Thus ends the first chapter in Bhāmaha's Ornament of Poetry.