Samayamatrika 3
English (machine translation) 3
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3.1
Third chapter
Description of the Evening Talk of Courtesans
Then, as the friend [the sun] prepared to depart, / in order to bring the mother of the courtesans, who produced all wealth / and was naturally tarnished [as the barber set out to bring her],
3.2
the languor of sleep arose, like heroism born from the torment of constraint / in impassioned lovers, / for those whose glorious fortune was drawing near its end;
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as the treasure of daylight slowly waned, the impassioned lord of day, / with only a small garment remaining, / clung for a moment to the abode of twilight;
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cast off by twilight, who swiftly fell in love [with night], / the heated sun, now free from passion, / plunged his body into the ocean water.
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Then, as courtesans were adorning themselves, / the masses of darkness appeared like the rising smoke of incense / produced from abundant black aloe.
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Darkness, resembling the loosened tresses of the mistress Night, / was brought under a rule of resting / by the champak garlands of lamps.
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Then, as though fallen in a rivalry's quarrel between the courtesans of heaven and earth, / the half-moon was seen in the sky / like an ivory earring.
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When the moon of cool radiance, the beloved of the lovely night, arose at day's end, / the world rejoiced, / and the festival of love began.
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Having enjoyed the fortune of the thousand-rayed [sun] / and reduced it to a condition remaining only in people's memory, / the beauty of the sky, like a courtesan utterly devoid of loyalty at will, / quickly adorned herself with the wealth of the moon.
3.10
Then, as rakes greedy for liquor began / to walk to and fro without purpose / on the roads in front of the courtesans' houses;
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as bawds kept their ears pressed to the doors, eager to receive payments, / looking up again and again / even at the fall of a blade of grass;
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as courtesans swept the ground littered with the leftover garlands and betel of daytime paramours, / and waited upon prepared beds / in expectation of another;
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as pigeons, taking the sound of jingling bells inside the beds being spread / for their signal, / went about cooing praise to Smara;
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as other courtesans said, / "How can an advance be taken on top of what is already taken? / Why did you not come earlier?";
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as teachers of knavery, with garments bound around their bellies, / tightened the knot of their matted locks / and started a quarrel over turns;
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as other courtesans vanished from sight when a third turn arrived, / after two advances had been accepted / simultaneously by themselves and by their mother;
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as others grew dejected with grief over a double loss / when a familiar client did not come / and a newly arrived one was turned away;
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as others conciliated men whom they had enjoyed and discarded / but who had acquired a new fortune of wealth, / making out their mother to be a villainous woman;
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[saying,] "If that good mother had not known you to be made of nectar, / some stratagem would have been mine; / what was it, then, for sustaining my life?";
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as clever women, enemies of their own sons, / won over an honest man who helped with all kinds of wealth / but had grown angry over daily deductions;
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as bawds shrieked violently with the ringing of bells / in a brawl between deceitful lovers / who had entered under another's name;
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as others took their paramour and went to a friend's house / when their own home was filled with sleeping guards, drunkards, / impoverished men, and low-lifes;
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as others on the road, on the pretext of calling a kitten, / lured a paramour, their prey, / from afar with side-glances;
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as others asked their mother, / "One is staying inside, another has arrived, and a third is hard to shake off today; / what shall I do?";
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as a circle of old women began telling tales to pass the time: / "The night is long, the lover is new, / and this daughter is very young";
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as others on empty beds spoke out of shame: / "No hire is taken from an unknown person; / those wandering about are foreign singers";
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as others cried out with feigned colic and headaches / when a penniless lover came, / shameless even though turned away;
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as bawds commenced praise of the virtues of friends of foolish lovers / who spent money freely, / in order to secure a steady gain;
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as rogues counted tenfold for first-time paramours, / [saying,] "O proud lady, / we feel ashamed with such a small amount of wealth";
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as a woman, concealing a wealthy client in secret, said: / "My daughter has been kept secluded by an official's son / who is devoted to life abroad," and took a triple hire;
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as a woman, even while saying, / "This little is not suitable for my daughter, / and there is no free time, and you are a stranger,"/ grabbed a rake firmly by the hem of his garment and did not let go;
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as an old woman duped an empty and infatuated man / by saying: / "My daughter has been taken today by a minister's son; / forgive her for this one night, out of affection for me";
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as a courtesan whose turns were crowded like a basket of enclosures said to a friend: / "The ṭakva, who has found a place today, will not give what is due if his turn is missed; / the cruel army commander will instantly become an enemy without his turn; / how indeed can a stipend be got from the temple if the scribe's turn is cast aside?";
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as a woman openly won over a lover's honesty with words: / "Those other women, my friend, have drawn in the wealth of simpletons with nets of deceitful snares; / what can we do, if by nature we do not know the art of deception? / A suspicious person is constantly averse by nature to genuine affection";
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as a rake, his mind depressed by distress, / questioned by laughing rakes, / explained the effortless fraud and crookedness of a bitter bawd: / "That whole delicious night was spent in a moment; / the day was wasted by the villain, and at night she carried off the bed";
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and as a woman said loudly, in order to quell the pride of a crowd of common courtesans: / "There is no entrance into our house merely with the courtesy of playful talk about virtuous men, / when paramours depart at the time for starting business; / our livelihood is accepted during the night from a well-known man, somehow or other, in deference to conduct!"
3.37
"Put the necklace on your throat, Taralikā; take the pair of bracelets, Manoharā; / look at the quivering girdle, Līlā; smear the sandalwood paste, Citrā; the night grows late:" / in this manner their female companions served as teachers of cleverness. //37
3.37_1
Thus ends the third chapter, named 'Description of the Twilight Courtesan-Talk', in the Samayamātṛkā composed by Kṣemendra, whose other name was Vyāsadāsa. //3
Linked texts (1)
- Samayamātṛkā — Kṣemendra, Sanskrit