Chapter Eight: Literature of the Rasika Tradition in Hindi

Monsoon has come—come, beloved, let us swing upon the swing!
Monsoon has come, companion; reveal your beauty while drops fall in a gentle patter.
Gyanali’s heart is saturated with joy, its burning extinguished, and the enchanter of her mind becomes a festival of happiness.

Drive the swing only a little—swing it gently.
Sita is delicate, Janaka’s darling daughter, and you are Raghu’s beloved young prince.
Drink the nectar-rasa of one another’s lips, lover and beloved; give and receive happiness as you embrace upon my swing.
Gyanali swings them while many companions play instruments and another sings her melody amid the clouds’ thunder and lightning’s uproar.

Today I shall create the play of rasa.
Bringing this dear lover beneath rasa’s control, I shall extinguish the burning in my heart.
Adorning myself with all sixteen fresh and enchanting embellishments and placing ornaments upon every limb,
I shall sing and play, draw Lal to my heart, and awaken the festival.

Tanu tanu, tum tum, tananananana; jhūm jhūm jhūm jhūm, jhum-jhananananana;
Tadiyan diranā, tum tan diranā—thus I shall reveal the movements.
Hearing Sita’s words, the lovely companions rejoice; their hearts overflow and their minds become playful.
Singing and singing their glory, Gyanali will please Sita and her beloved.

Natavar dances with his accomplished Lady.
Beside him shines the extraordinary fresh young beauty, radiant in virtue and form.
The beauty of the autumn night spreads around them; lover and beloved stand with arms about one another’s necks.
Gazing and gazing upon their faces, rejoicing again and again, the ocean of companions dances.

Each drinks the rasa of the other’s moon-like face, while their mutual smiles steal away life itself.
When the music and song rise, they become mad beneath rasa’s sway.
At every moment they introduce ever-new steps, singing together and blending their notes.
Gyanali sings their virtues, pleasing the mind; lover and beloved are abodes of beauty.

Their wagtail-like eyes steal mind and sleep.
The accomplished lovers are oceans of happiness and abodes of beauty; helpless in love, they speak gentle words again and again.
The beloved is life’s treasure, the very life of her lover; without her he cannot pass a single moment, day or night.
His cakora-heart steals toward her moon-like face and drinks with its eyes the nectar-rasa of beauty.

Janaki Raman is the life of the world; poets and scholars sing of his form according to the measure of their understanding.
Gyanali says both are intoxicated with the rasa of beauty, filled in every limb with happiness and loveliness.

The two connoisseurs dance within the golden courtyard, raising priceless waves of the play of rasa.
Awadhesh’s Lal and Mithilesh’s daughter are a graceful, captivating vision chosen by the heart.