Page:The Poetical Works of Ram Sharma.djvu/312

 270 BHAGABATI GITA I done my duty well? the answer still That Conscience made was, No! Then dark Despair, Like to a black'ning cloud, enwrapped my mind; But Hope, returning, cheer'd my drooping spirits, And gently whisper'd: "Wait, thou may'st yet find Acceptance of the gods by penance stern, And love, and kindliness unto thy kind." The rock-embosom'd valley disappear'd, And now I stood before a crystal lake, By crystal streamlets fed, beneath whose wave The day-god, like a warrior spent with toil, Was sinking down to rest, with a last kiss To blushing earth. Here troops of snow-white swan Were merry-making,-dipping their long necks Into the lake, to whisper tales of love To Naiads of the flood; or blowing loud Their clarions shrill; or floating silently Among the lilies and the lotuses, Which looked, with bhramars clinging to their face, Like Aryan beauties, deck'd with lovely dotst Of black on lovelier brows. The diver birds Now plung'd into the water, now rush'd out On lightning wings, like well-born epicures Enjoying transient life as best they might ; While other water-fowl of various length Of beak and bill, swell'd high the swan's loud blare. When, lo! seated upon her lotus-throne, Little round dots usually black, placed between the eye-brows of Hindu women to enhance the beauty of the face
 * Bumble bees.