Gita Govinda 1.8

English (machine translation) 1.8

Language: English

1.8.1 — 2 parts
1.8.2 — 1 part
1.8.11 — 3 parts

1.8.1

Then, having somehow passed the night, though shattered by Smara's arrows,
at dawn, with indignation, she addressed her beloved,
who stood bowed before her, speaking words of conciliation:

1.8.1.p2

Sung in the melodic mode Bhairavī and the rhythmic meter Yati.

1.8.2

Reddened by the deep sleeplessness born of night, its blinking sluggish,
your eye bears, as it were, a manifest passion, its absorbed aesthetic flavor aroused.

1.8.2.p1

Hari, Hari! Go, Mādhava! Go, Keśava! Speak no deceitful words! / Follow her, lotus-eyed one, who takes away your sorrow! // Refrain

1.8.3

Given a dark hue by kissing eyes stained with collyrium,
your red lip, Kṛṣṇa, makes itself look just like your body.

1.8.4

Your body bears scratches from sharp nails received in love's battle,
like a record of victory in amorous pleasure, written in gold upon a piece of emerald.

1.8.5

Sprinkled with red lac dripping from lotus feet, this broad chest of yours
shows outwardly, as it were, a cluster of fresh sprouts from the tree of desire.

1.8.6

The tooth-mark upon your lip produces grief in my heart;
how can it now say that your body is non-different from mine?

1.8.7

Just like your exterior, Kṛṣṇa, your mind must surely be even darker;
why else do you deceive this woman who is devoted to you and tormented by the fever of the Odd-Arrowed One's shafts?

1.8.8

You wander in the forests to devour helpless women—what is strange in that?
Pūtanā alone made known your youthful deeds, merciless in slaying women.

1.8.9

Listen, wise gods, to the lament uttered by Śrī Jayadeva of the young woman deceived in love and wronged by infidelity,
sweet as nectar and hard to attain even in the realm of the gods.

Looking at this chest of yours, its reddish glow smeared with the red lac of your beloved's feet,
as if your passion were spilling outside,
the sight of you, deceiver, today causes me, along with grief, a certain shame
because the heavy love once so renowned has been broken.

1.8.11

May the sound of Kaṃsa's enemy's flute take away your misfortunes and grant blessings—
that great mantra which enchants the hearts of fawn-eyed maidens, captivating their gaze and freezing them as it shakes loose mandāra flowers falling from their swaying crests,
and which destroys the unbearable distress and disasters of the gods tormented by arrogant demons!

Translations (1)

The Indian Song of Songs — Edwin Arnold 1875, English

Commentaries (4)

Rasikapriyā — Kumbhakarṇa, Sanskrit
Rasamañjarī — Śaṅkara, Sanskrit
Commentary of Mānāṅka — Mānāṅka, Sanskrit
Śrutirañjanī — Lakṣmīdhara 1567, Sanskrit

Linked texts (1)

Gītagovinda — Jayadeva, Sanskrit