Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/569

 heavenly damsels of beauty superior to any she could claim, rudely preventing her passage and when she asked about Krisna, saying ‘ How foolish for a mad woman to think of reaching the highest heaven, the Vaikuntha of Krisna!’ There in the starry night when the dews were falling and the champaka was diffusing its fragrance,—the soft murmurs of the Jumna were heard from a distance,—in that dark night illuminated by the diamonds on the walls of the palaces and the stars of the sky, the unfortunate wanderer moved from gate to gate with pale face crying ‘O Krisna’, and as the gate keepers treated her with contempt and even rudeness,—her eyes became full of tears and she suddenly fell on her knees and with clasped palms prayed,—“O Lord of my Soul, O Lord of the Universe, O Krisna, | am a poor woman, foolish to the extreme and full of frailties and sins. Pardon me, O Lord, pardon me. I cannot live without thee. [die here.’ And she drooped low even as a flower droops when the rains fall upon it, and in deep resignation she sat closing her eyes dazzled with the glories before her. ‘How weak am I! How poor- and cursed!’ She cried. ‘But forsake me not, O Lord of the Universe, ] am but a poor and ignorant milk-maid,’ and when she opened her eyes, the palaces had all gone and she saw her own Krisha,—the shepherd-boy standing before her, flute in hand, and taking her gently by the arm, saying ‘‘ Radha, my soul, the joy of my life, where have you been so long?” and she clasped his feet with her hands and for her choked yoice could not say where she had been. God does
 * 1 1 | ড,.] 85081 [00008 &০ 15111081085. ন3ঃ diamonds, and reaching up tothe starry regions,—