Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/159

 1]া,] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. = 129 ‘All the troubles suffered for my sake he takes as happiness and he is only sorry if he sees me sad. “The story of this love, says Chandidas, will gladden the world.” While the old man was singing, | suddenly heard his voice become choked with tears, and he could not proceed any more. On his coming to himself after this display of feeling, | asked him the cause of his tears. He said, it was the song. The song, | said, described a secret love-affair, and where could be the pathos in it that gave occasion for such an out-burst of feeling in an old man ? He explained to me that he did not consider the song as an ordinary love-song. Here is his interpretation,—“I am full of sins. My soul 15 covered with darkness. In deep distress I beck- oned Him to come to me. The merciful God came. [| found Him waiting for me at the gate of my house. It cannot be any pleasure to Him to come to a great sinner like me,—the path ts so foul, but by my supreme good fortune the merciful God took it. The world I live in, has left no door open for Him. Relations and friends laugh, or even are hostile, but remembering His great mercy what can a sinner do, except desert his house and all, court any abuse of the world, and turn a sannyasin!” The thought of His mercy choked my voice—“Oh dark is the night and thick are the clouds, how could you, my beloved, come by the path.” But He exposes Himself to the rain, because in order to help the sinner He is ready to suffer,’ ৪?