A History of Sanskrit Literature c11.s5.4

c11.s5.4

At first sight the effect of the poem seems to be marred by an element of unreality in the longing of the Yakṣa, whose separation is but temporary and who as an attendant of Çiva cannot in truth fear either death or even injury for his beloved from his absence. The message would have read very differently had it been sent, as in Schiller’s *Maria Stuart*, by a helpless captive awaiting in resignation or despair an ineluctable doom. But to understand the poem aright we must remember that the poet doubtless felt that it was, as later writers expressly allege, the duty of the poet to suggest rather than to say outright; the loves of the two immortals is a symbol of human love; perhaps¹ Kālidāsa had some experience of his own which the poem indicates, for the vivid colours in which he describes the Yakṣa’s abode seem to be drawn from real life. Certainty is wholly unattainable, but in any event it is difficult to praise too highly either the brilliance of the description of the cloud’s progress or the pathos of the picture of the wife sorrowful and alone. Indian criticism has ranked it highest among Kālidāsa’s poems for brevity of expression, richness of content, and power to elicit sentiment, and the praise is not undeserved.