Page:Chitra - Rabindranath Tagore.djvu/13

 would wear the world to the bone but that I follow them and constantly attack them. I am Eternal Youth.

I bow to thee, Lord Vasanta.

But what stern vow is thine, fair stranger? Why dost thou wither thy fresh youth with penance and mortification? Such a sacrifice is not fit for the worship of love. Who art thou and what is thy prayer?

I am Chitra, the daughter of the kingly house of Manipur. With god-like grace Lord Shiva promised to my royal grandsire an unbroken line of male descent. Nevertheless, the divine word proved powerless to change the spark of life in my mother’s womb