Sir Edwin Arnold

“ Where, like pearls hid in red-lipped shells, the row
Of pearly teeth thy rose-red lips lie under;
Ah me! I am that bird that woos the moon,
And pipes—poor fool! to make it glitter soon.
Yet hear me on—because I cannot stay
The passion of my soul, because my gladness
Will pour forth from my heart;—since that far day
When through the mist of all my sin and sadness
[85] Thou didst vouchsafe—Surpassing One!—to break,
All else I slighted for thy noblest sake.
Thou, thou hast been my blood, my breath, my being;
The pearl to plunge for in the sea of life ”

“ Lead back my horse and take my crest-pearl here, My princely robes, which henceforth stead me not, My jewelled sword-belt and my sword, and these The long locks by its bright edge severed thus From off my brows. Give the King all, and say Siddartha prays forget him till he come Ten times a prince, with royal wisdom won From lonely searchings and the strife for light; Where, if I conquer, lo! all earth is mine— Mine by chief service!—tell him—mine by love! Since there is hope for man only in man, And none hath sought for this as I will seek, Who cast away my world to save my world. ”

“ With tender thoughts—not Krishna, but brow and breast and lips
And form and mien a King, a great and godlike thing;
And then with bended head she asks grace from the Love Divine,
To keep thee discontented with the phantoms thou forswearest,
Till she may win her glory, and thou be raised to thine.
Softly now she sayeth,
"Krishna, Krishna, come!"
Lovingly she prayeth,
"Fair moon, light him home."
Yet if Hari helps not,
Moonlight cannot aid;
Ah! the woeful Radha!
Ah! the forest shade!
Ah! if Hari guide not,
Moonlight is as gloom;
Ah! if moonlight help not,
How shall Krishna come? ”

“ Thou teachest them who teach, Wiser than wisdom in thy simple lore. Be thou content to know not, knowing thus Thy way of right and duty: grow, thou flower With thy sweet kind in peaceful shade—the light Of Truth's high noon is not for tender leaves Which must spread broad in other suns and lift In later lives a crowned head to the sky. Thou who hast worshipped me, I worship thee! Excellent heart! learned unknowingly, As the dove is which flieth home by love. In thee is seen why there is hope for man And where we hold the wheel of life at will. Peace go with thee, and comfort all thy days! ”

“ Her soul comes here beside thee, and sitteth down with thine.
Her soul comes here beside thee, and tenderly and true
It weaves a subtle mail of proof to ward off sin and pain;
A breastplate soft as lotus-leaf, with holy tears for dew,
To guard thee from the things that hurt; and then 'tis gone again
To strew a blissful place with the richest buds that grace
Kama's sweet world, a meeting-spot with rose and jasmine fair,
For the hour when, well-contented, with a love no longer troubled,
Thou shalt find the way to Radha, and finish sorrows there. ”

“ Ofttimes I marvel, as the Lord of day Treads from the east his kingly road of gold, Who first on the world's edge hath hailed his beam, The children of the morning; oftentimes, Even in thine arms and on thy breasts, bright wife, Sore have I panted, at the sun's decline, To pass with him into that crimson west And see the peoples of the evening. There must be many we should love—how else? Now have I in this hour an ache, at last, Thy soft lips cannot kiss away: oh, girl! O Chitra! you that know of fairyland! Where tether they that swift steed of the tale? ”

“ If love and craft can conquer, a thousand is as three.
"If love be weak to save him, Soorj dies—and ye return,
For where a Rajpoot dieth, the Rajpoot widows burn."
Thereat the Ranee Neila unbraided from her hair
The pearls as great as Kashmir grapes Soorj gave his wife to wear,
And all across her bosoms—like lotus-buds to see—
She wrapped the tinselled sari of a dancing Kunchenee;
And fastened on her ankles the hundred silver bells,
To whose light laugh of music the Nautch-girl darts and dwells. ”

“ Lo! as the wind is so is mortal life, A moan, a sigh, a sob, a storm, a strife. Wherefore and whence we are ye cannot know, Nor where life springs nor whither life doth go; We are as ye are, ghosts from the inane, What pleasure have we of our changeful pain? What pleasure hast thou of thy changeless bliss? Nay, if love lasted, there were joy in this; But life's way is the wind's way, all these things Are but brief voices breathed on shifting strings. O Maya's son! because we roam the earth Moan we upon these strings ”

“ And the lion's but a jackal who hath left his forest-shade."
"The people are the lotus-leaves, their monarch is the sun—
When he doth sink beneath the waves they vanish every one.
When he doth rise they rise again with bud and blossom rife,
To bask awhile in his warm smile, who is their lord and life."
"All the cows bring forth are cattle—only now and then is born
An authentic lord of pastures, with his shoulder-scratching horn."
[263] "When the soldier in the battle lays his life down for his king,
Unto Swarga's perfect glory such a deed his soul shall bring." ”

“ Times are as nought, tomorrow it will judge, Or after many days. By this the slayer's knife did stab himself; The unjust judge hath lost his own defender; The false tongue dooms its lie; the creeping thief And spoiler rob, to render. Such is the Law which moves to righteousness, Which none at last can turn aside or stay; The heart of it is Love, the end of it Is Peace and Consummation sweet. Obey! The Books say well, my Brothers! each man's life The outcome of his former living is; The bygone wrongs bring forth sorrows and woes The bygone right breeds bliss. ”

“ It takes flight, and seeks to rise
High into the purer skies,
High into the snow and frost,
On the shining summits lost!
Ah! and how the Koil's strain
Smites the traveller with pain,—
When the mango blooms in spring,
And "Koohoo," "Koohoo," they sing—
Pain of pleasures not yet won,
Pain of journeys not yet done,
Pain of toiling without gaining,
Pain, 'mid gladness, of still paining.
[21]
But may He guide us all to glory high
Who laughed when Radha glided, hidden, by,
And all among those damsels free and bold
Touched Krishna with a soft mouth, kind and cold ”

“ Oh! suffering world, Oh! known and unknown of my common flesh, Caught in this common net of death and woe, And life which binds to both! I see, I feel The vastness of the agony of earth, The vainness of its joys, the mockery Of all its best, the anguish of its worst; Since pleasures end in pain, and youth in age, And love in loss, and life in hateful death, And death in unknown lives, which will but yoke Men to their wheel again to whirl the round Of false delights and woes that are not false. ”

“ Ah, heart of gold, why art thou broke? O King!
Whence falleth he?'
"And Yudhishthira said,
Not pausing: 'Once he lied, a lordly lie!
He bragged—our brother—that a single day
Should see him utterly consume, alone,
All those his enemies,—which could not be.
Yet from a great heart sprang the unmeasured speech.
Howbeit, a finished hero should not shame
Himself in such wise, nor his enemy,
If he will faultless fight and blameless die:
This was Arjuna's sin. Follow thou me!'
"So the king still went on. ”

“ I am a late-come scribe Who love the Master and his love of men, And tell this legend, knowing he was wise, But have not wit to speak beyond the books; And time hath blurred their script and ancient sense, Which once was new and mighty, moving all. A little of that large discourse I know Which Buddha spake on the soft Indian eve. Also I know it writ that they who heard Were more—lakhs more—crores more—than could be seen, For all the Devas and the Dead thronged there, Till Heaven was emptied to the seventh zone And uttermost dark Hells opened their bars ”

“ A demulcent—an astringent—foe to evils intestine;
Giving to the breath a fragrance—to the lips a crimson red;
A detergent, and a kindler of Love's flame that lieth dead.
Praise the Gods for the good betel!—these be thirteen virtues given,
Hard to meet in one thing blended, even in their happy heaven."
"He is brave whose tongue is silent of the trophies of his sword;
He is great whose quiet bearing marks his greatness well assured."
"When the Priest, the Leech, the Vizier of a King his flatterers be,
Very soon the King will part with health, and wealth and piety." ”

“ The body by the mind being thus stripped For glory of much suffering, and the bliss Which they shall win—say holy books—whose woe Shames gods that send us woe, and makes men gods Stronger to suffer than hell is to harm. Whom sadly eyeing spake our Lord to one, Chief of the woe-begones: "Much-suffering sir These many moons I dwell upon the hill— Who am a seeker of the Truth—and see My brothers here, and thee, so piteously Self-anguished; wherefore add ye ills to life Which is so evil?" ”

“ Know'st thou, my brother, if it be not thus, After their many pains, with saints in bliss? Since that which rises falls, and that which buys Is spent; and if ye buy heaven with your blood In hell's hard market, when the bargain's through The toil begins again!" "It may begin," The hermit moaned. "Alas! we know not this, Nor surely anything; yet after night Day comes, and after turmoil peace, and we Hate this accursed flesh which clogs the soul That fain would rise; so, for the sake of soul, We stake brief agonies in game with Gods To gain the larger joys." ”

“ And some one saw a hooded snake glide forth,— The gods come ofttimes thus! So our Lord Buddh Began his works of mercy. Yet not more Knew he as yet of grief than that one bird's, Which, being healed, went joyous to its kind. But on another day the King said, "Come, Sweet son! and see the pleasaunce of the spring, And how the fruitful earth is wooed to yield Its riches to the reaper; how my realm— Which shall be thine when the pile flames for me— Feeds all its mouths and keeps the King's chest filled. Fair is the season with new leaves, bright blooms, Green grass, and cries of plough-time." ”

“ Whose windows give us light—the little light Whereby we gaze abroad to know if dawn Will break, and whither winds the better road?" Then cried they, "We have chosen this for road And tread it, Rajaputra, till the close— Though all its stones were fire—in trust of death. Speak, if thou know'st a way more excellent; If not, peace go with thee!" Onward he passed, Exceeding sorrowful, seeing how men Fear so to die they are afraid to fear, Lust so to live they dare not love their life, But plague it with fierce penances, belike To please the Gods who grudge pleasure to man ”

“ The Second Truth is Sorrow's Cause. What grief Springs of itself and springs not of Desire? Senses and things perceived mingle and light Passion's quick spark of fire: So flameth Trishna, lust and thirst of things. Eager ye cleave to shadows, dote on dreams. A false Self in the midst ye plant, and make A world around which seems; Blind to the height beyond, deaf to the sound Of sweet airs breathed from far past Indra's sky; Dumb to the summons of the true life kept For him who false puts by. So grow the strifes and lusts which make earth's war, So grieve poor cheated hearts and flow salt tears ”

“ Who of these Five is conqueror hath trod Three stages out of Four: yet there abide The Love of Life on earth, Desire for Heaven, Self-Praise, Error, and Pride. As one who stands on yonder snowy horn Having nought o'er him but the boundless blue, So, these sins being slain, the man is come NIRVANA's verge unto. Him the Gods envy from their lower seats; Him the Three Worlds in ruin should not shake; All life is lived for him, all deaths are dead; Karma will no more make New houses. Seeking nothing, he gains all ”

“ Thy Lord,—our Lord,—the hope of all the land Siddartha! they have seen him face to face Yea, and have worshipped him with knees and brows, And offered offerings; for he is become All which was shown, a teacher of the wise, World-honoured, holy, wonderful; a Buddh Who doth deliver men and save all flesh By sweetest speech and pity vast as Heaven And, lo! he journeyeth hither, these do say." Then—while the glad blood bounded in her veins As Gunga leaps when first the mountain snows Melt at her springs—uprose Yasodhara And clapped her palms, and laughed, with brimming tears Beading her lashes. ”

“ Howbeit I have seen Thee. Know, O King! This is that Blossom on our human tree Which opens once in many myriad years— But opened, fills the world with Wisdom's scent And Love's dropped honey; from thy royal root A Heavenly Lotus springs: Ah, happy House! Yet not all-happy, for a sword must pierce Thy bowels for this boy—whilst thou, sweet Queen! Dear to all gods and men for this great birth, Henceforth art grown too sacred for more woe, And life is woe, therefore in seven days Painless thou shalt attain the close of pain. ”

“ So years chase blood-stained years With wild red feet. So, where the grain should grow, Spreads the biran-weed with its evil root And poisonous blossoms; hardly good seeds find Soil where to fall and shoot; And drugged with poisonous drink the soul departs, And fierce with thirst to drink Karma returns; Sense-struck again the sodden self begins, And new deceits it earns The Third is Sorrow's Ceasing. This is peace— To conquer love of self and lust of life, To tear deep-rooted passion from the breast, To still the inward strife ”

“ If ye lay bound upon the wheel of change, And no way were of breaking from the chain, The Heart of boundless Being is a curse, The Soul of Things fell Pain. Ye are not bound! the Soul of Things is sweet, The Heart of Being is celestial rest; Stronger than woe is will: that which was Good Doth pass to Better—Best. I, Buddh, who wept with all my brothers' tears, Whose heart was broken by a whole world's woe, Laugh and am glad, for there is Liberty Ho! ”