Dark and Fair Youths Stand Like Autumn Beauty
Ayodhya Kanda, Doha 116
Doha 116 · Movement 2 of 2
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The women behold the two youthful figures, one dark and one fair, each a dwelling place of beauty. Their contrast does not divide the vision. It makes the pair appear more perfectly joined.
Faces glow with the clear fullness of an autumn moon. Eyes open like autumn lotuses, unclouded and deep. Forest dress surrounds a radiance no royal ornament could improve.
The season of pure skies gathers into human form: moonlight, lotus, dark depth, and bright grace. Before asking who these princes are, the women first experience what cannot be answered by lineage. Beauty itself has stepped onto their dusty village road in two tender forms.
On the roadside, one dark youth and one fair become moon and lotus within the lucid stillness of autumn.
Read the passage from the Manas
स्यामल गौर किसोर बर सुंदर सुषमा ऐन। सरद सर्बरीनाथ मुखु सरद सरोरुह नैन।।116।।
One dark, one fair, both youthful and exceedingly beautiful, the very essence of loveliness. Their faces glow like the moon of an autumn night. Their eyes bloom like autumn lotuses.