Page:Love in Hindu Literature.djvu/20

 6 I. TAGORE. Thou art to me but as a wave Of the wild sea.
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The lake, the bay, the waterfall ; And Thee, the spirit of them all ! "

The questions that naturally arise about Tagore's Chitra as she appears to the puissant-armed hero must be like the following : " Who was her father ? Who was her mother ? Had she a sister ? Had she a brother ? "

And, in fact, Tagore puts almost the same questions in Arjuna's mouth : " My love, have you no home where kind hearts are waiting for your return ? A home which, you once made sweet ' with your gentle service and whose light went out when you left it out for this- wilderness ? " It should be noted, in passing, that this- picture of a sweet home is only an incidental inquiry on- the part of the lover to satisfy a curiosity or solve his mystery regarding the person with whom he has been enjoying all this while, and has not even an indirect reference to the prospective abode of Arjuna and his unmarried darling.

Chitra has always been to our hero " a wave of the wild sea," a mystery ; and Tagore does not want to solve this mystery. For the heroine is made to keep up the mystery: "Why these questions? Do you: not know that I am no more than what you see before: you ? For me there is no vista beyond." And to the more definite desire of Arjuna to let his heart feel Chitra on all sides and live with her in the peaceful