Page:Bengali Religious Lyrics, Śākta.pdf/46

36 what shall I do? You will make me endure the pangs of birth again and again.

A very famous song. There are variant readings.

IX. HIS DAYS ARE PASSED IN MISERY

In what have I offended so?

Unendurable has my daily lot become, all day I sit and weep. Inwardly I say, I will leave my home, I will dwell no longer in such a land. But the Wheel of Life turns me in its circle, and Chintārām Chāprāsi awaits me. I say, I will leave my home, and pass my days praising the Name. But you, Kālī, have so wrought that I am bound fast to this vain show of things.

Weeping at Kālī's Feet, poor Rāmprasād says: This Kālī of mine, this Kālī of my thought, through her I have become wretched.

X. THE VANITY OF LIFE AFTER LIFE

It is just the hope of hope, this coming into the world, and it all ends in coming, the black bee's mistake when he falls on the pictured lotus. You have fed me with nim-leaves, calling them sugar, deceiving me with words. Mother, in my greed for sweets, I have spent my whole day with wry, embittered lips.