Gita Govinda 1.12

When the circle of her confidantes had departed, seeing Rādhā whose lower lip was bathed in an expanding smile born of the intention overcome by Smara with an unbearable weight of deep bashfulness, / her heart impassioned, casting her gaze again and again upon the couch of fresh leafy sprouts, Hari spoke to his beloved:

|| Lyric Composition 23

Sung in the vibhāsa melodic mode and ekatālī rhythmic meter.

Place your lotus feet upon the surface of the couch of tender shoots, O passionate woman! / Let this well-arranged [couch] suffer defeat by the sprout of your foot!

Follow Nārāyaṇa, who is devoted to you, now for a moment, O Rādhikā! // Refrain

With my lotus hand I shall massage your foot; you have traveled far; / favor me upon the bed for a moment, like an anklet heroic in following your steps!

Fashion favorable words like nectar trickling from the moon of your face! / I shall remove the fine silk from your chest, which obstructs your breasts like separation!

Place upon my chest your jar-like breast, thrilling as if stirred by the eagerness of a lover's embrace, so hard to attain; / quench the burning torment of mind-born love.

Offer the nectar of your lips, passionate woman! Revive your servant who is as if dead, / whose mind is fixed on you, whose body is scorched by the fire of separation, bereft of dalliance.

Moon-faced one, make your jeweled girdle sound in harmony with the soft cries of your throat! / In both my ears, distraught by the cuckoo's call, put an end at last to dejection.

Unable to look upon me now, undone by your utterly futile anger, / your eye turns away as if ashamed; cast off your groundless weariness of love!

[Variant reading note]

May this utterance of Śrī Jayadeva, proclaiming at every step the delight of the foe of Madhu, / generate among discerning connoisseurs the pleasure of the charming sentiment and emotional state of love.

There was a hindrance to close embrace caused by bristling hair, to gazing with amorous intent by the blinking of an eye, / to drinking the nectar of the lips by amorous talk, and to the battle of love's arts by the attainment of bliss: / yet that beginning of lovemaking which arose between the two became delightfully charming.

Restrained by her arms, pressed hard by the weight of her breasts, scratched by her nails, his lips bitten by her teeth, struck by the slope of her hips, / pulled down by her hand on his hair, enchanted by the trickling honey of her lips—the lover found an inexplicable satisfaction: ah, strange indeed is the course of desire!

At the inception of the confused battle of erotic play in the domain of love, when she boldly initiated the superior position to conquer her lover, / out of that exertion her hips became motionless, the creepers of her arms went limp, her chest heaved, her eyes closed: how could the active role of men succeed for women?

Her chest marked with pale red nail-scratches, her eyes red with sleepiness, the crimson washed from her lips, the garland in her hair disheveled and slipping down, / the belt of her girdle slightly loosened—by these arrows of desire embedded in the eyes in the morning, wonderfully indeed, the heart of her lover was transfixed.

Her mass of hair is disheveled, her cheeks are trembling with ringlets and streaming with sweat, the beauty of her bimba-fruit lip is worn away, her pearl necklace is displaced by the radiance of her jar-like breasts, / the splendor of her girdle is ruined: covering her breasts and the region of her hips with her hands, looking bashfully [at him], disheveled though she is, she charms with her innocent beauty.

[Variant reading note]

Her gaze half-closed, her lip washed by the gleam of her teeth shining through indistinct, confused, playful sighs from the stream of charming, exquisite gasps of pleasure, / her breasts calmed and motionless from tight embrace, her body limp and released by the climax of joy—a fortunate lover drinks the face of that fawn-eyed woman.

[Variant reading note]

Then, at the end of lovemaking, her limbs thoroughly exhausted, / Rādhā joyfully and respectfully spoke thus to the suddenly delighted Govinda:

|| Lyric Composition 24

Sung in Rāmakarī rāga and Yati tāla.

With your hand cooler than sandalpaste, son of Yadu, draw upon my breast / a musk leaf pattern, here on this twin to love's auspicious jar!

She spoke while the son of Yadu, the delighter of her heart, was dallying. // Refrain

Brighten, beloved, my eyes, which put a swarm of bees to shame, which discharge the arrows of the lord of love, / and whose collyrium has slipped down from your kissing of my lips!

On my ears, which surpass the darting waves of deer-eyes / and possess the charm of love's snares, place the earrings, you who are handsomely adorned!

Arrange upon my face the curls that bring forth playful teasing, that make a delightful swarm of bees / right before me for a long time, on this flawless [face] that has conquered the lotus!

Lotus-faced one, make a graceful forehead mark of fragrant musk upon the moon of my brow, / having the beauty of a hare-mark, resting the droplets of perspiration!

O giver of honor, place flowers in my lovely hair, the flywhisk of love's banner, / charming, slipped loose in amorous pleasure, rivaling the plumage of a peacock!

Upon my plump and lovely hips, a cave for the elephant of the slayer of Śambara, / clothe me, noble-minded one, with the ornaments of jeweled girdle and garment!

Set your compassionate heart on this radiant speech of Śrī Jayadeva, an ornament / that destroys the fever of the defilements of the Kali age, fashioned from the nectar of remembering Hari's feet.

"Paint a decorative leaf pattern on my breasts; make it on my cheeks; fasten the girdle on my hips; arrange the mass of braided hair with a charming garland; / place rows of bangles on my wrists, and jeweled anklets on my feet"—addressed thus, the delighted Pītāmbara did just so.

Assuming an omnipresent form through the multitude of reflections cast upon the gems of the serpent-king's hoods that formed his couch, / eager to gaze with hundreds of eyes upon the daughter of the ocean who held his lotus feet, moving as if through an array of bodies to worship her—may Hari continually protect you!

[Variant reading note]

"Failing to win you when you were intent on choosing your husband on the shore of the ocean of milk, / I suspect, fair one, that Mṛḍānī's foolish husband drank the kālakūṭa poison!" / Speaking thus of former tales, pushing aside the edge of her bodice with his mind elsewhere, / may Hari protect you, his eyes meeting upon the buds of Rādhā's breasts!

NOTE: {padmāyāḥ according to Haridāsa.}

Whatever skill there is in the arts of music, whatever meditation on Viṣṇu, / and whatever playfulness in poetry composing the true essence of erotic discernment— / let the wise joyfully examine all that in the venerable Gītagovinda / of the scholar-poet Jayadeva, whose mind is single-pointedly devoted to Kṛṣṇa.

NOTE: {This verse appears as number 26 in the Haridāsa edition.}

The approval of good people will naturally arise here, as will that of those seeking devotion; / and considering the labor of composition, the wise will have regard for this work. / Whatever others there are who are intent on listening to the works of others, I entreat them: / having examined my work repeatedly, let them speak of any fault, if that inclination remains.

Born of the illustrious Bhojadeva and son of Rāmādevī, / may the poetry of the venerable Gītagovinda by the illustrious Jayadeva dwell in the throats of his beloved circle of friends beginning with Parāśara!

NOTE: {bandhu according to the reading of ha.}
NOTE: {This verse is the last in some editions.}
Sweet liquor, you have no virtue—no one cares for you! Sugar, you are harsh! / Grape, who will look upon you? Nectar, you are dead! Milk, your taste is mere water! / Mango, lament! Lover's lower lip, do not think of comparison! Begone! / For so long do the witty words of Jayadeva bestow aesthetic flavor, as if the auspicious essence of erotic sentiment!

NOTE: {This verse is not found in Narayana Maharaja's edition of Gīta-govinda, even though there is a Bāla-bodhinī ṭīkā for it.}

Having thus sported a series of love-plays on the bank of the Yamunā together with Rādhā, / where the pair of her line of body hair and string of pearls bore the illusion of a braid of streams, / may the movements of Puruṣottama's hands, eager for the twin fruits of Prayāga that are her delightful breasts, / grant you abundant joy and prosperity!

NOTE: {This verse does not seem to be in those editions that follow Bāla-bodhinī. It's in the Kulkarni and Nirnaya-sāgara editions.}

Thus ends the twelfth sarga, entitled "Pītāmbara Delighted", / in the great poem, the venerable Gītagovinda, composed by the illustrious Jayadeva.

This poem is finished.