Page:Little Clay Cart (Ryder 1905).djvu/121

P. 143.20

Where hosts of swollen clouds seem to our sight

One covering veil of gray.

Vasantasenā. True. And see!

The stars are lost like mercies given

To men of evil heart;

Like lonely-parted wives, the heaven

Sees all her charms depart.

And, molten in the cruel heat

Of Indra's bolt, it seems

As if the sky fell at our feet

In liquid, flowing streams.

And yet again:

The clouds first darkly rise, then darkly fall,

Send forth their floods of rain, and thunder all;

Assuming postures strange and manifold,

Like men but newly blest with wealth untold.

Courtier. True.

The heaven is radiant with the lightning's glare;

Its laughter is the cry of myriad cranes;

Its voice, the bolts that whistle through the air;

Its dance, that bow whose arrows are the rains.

It staggers at the winds, and seems to smoke

With clouds, which form its black and snaky cloak.

Vasantasenā. O shameless, shameless sky!

To thunder thus, while I

To him I love draw nigh.

Why do thy thunders frighten me and pain?

Why am I seized upon by hands of rain?

O Indra, mighty Indra!

Did I then give thee of my love before,

That now thy clouds like mighty lions roar?

Ah no! Thou shouldst not send thy streaming rain,

To fill my journey to my love with pain.