Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/73

II.] heart). I adore your beauty beaming with holy maidenhood which inspires no carnal desire. When I do not see you, my mind becomes restless; and as I see you. my heart is soothed. O washerwoman. my lady, you are to me what parents are to helpless children. The three prayers that a Brāhmin offers daily to his God, I offer to you. You are to me as holy as Gāyatrī from which the Vedas originated. I know you to be the goddess Sarasvatī who inspires songs. I know you to be the goddess Pārvatī.—You are the garland of my neck,—my heaven and earth, my nether-worlds and my mountains—nay, my whole universe! you are the apple of my eyes. Without you all is dark to me. My eyes are soothed when I see you. The day I do not see your moonlike face, I remain like a dead man. I cannot, for a moment, forget your grace and beauty. O, tell me how I may deserve y0ur fayvour? You are my sacred hymns and the essence of my prayers. My love for your maidenly beauty has not any element of physical desire in it. Says Chaṅdīdās,—the love of the washerwoman is pure gold tested by touch-stone." Chaṅdīdās was himself