The height of noon, and he was lying there In the broad sun, all bare! What if he felt no wind? the air was still. Of Nature, not his own peculiar doom; 5. Is it indeed a dream? he rose to try, And in the stream he plunged his hasty arm His dry hand moved about unmoisten'd there; Or grasp the impassive air. He is Almighty then! Exclaim'd the wretched man in his despair: Air knows him, Water knows him; Sleep His dreadful word will keep; Even in the grave there is no rest for me, Cut off from that last hope, ... the wretch's joy; And Veeshnoo hath no power to save, Nor Seeva to destroy. 6. Oh! wrong not them! quoth Kailyal, Have drawn the Incarnate down among mankind. Her grateful arms around it, ... It was thou My Marriataly, it was thou! I had not else been here To share my Father's Curse, and yet to thank thee thus! 7. Here then, the maiden cried, dear Father, here With heart and voice the guardian Goddess bless, Neglect and thanklessness; Set up her Image here, And bless her for her aid with tongue and soul sincere. 8. So saying on her knees the maid Soon their joint labour scoops the easy soil; They raise the Image up with reverent hand, O Marriataly, thee do I implore, Can do thy daily service, as of yore! And swimming round with arms outspread, In dextrous dance before thee, While underneath the reedy shed, at rest 9. Then heaving from her heart a heavy sigh, O Goddess! from that happy home, cried she, The Almighty Man hath forced us! And homeward with the thought unconsciously She turn'd her dizzy eye. But there on high, With many a dome, and pinnacle, and spire, The summits of the Golden Palaces Blazed in the dark blue sky, aloft, like fire. Father, away! she cried, away! Why linger we so nigh? For not to him hath Nature given The thousand eyes of Deity, Always and every where with open sight, To persecute our flight! Away... away! she said, And took her father's hand, and like a child He followed where she led. 29 V. THE SEPARATION. 1. EVENING comes on: arising from the stream, Hark! at the Golden Palaces For leagues and leagues around, the brazen sound 2. Behold them wandering on their hopeless way, Yet sure where'er they stop to find no rest. |