Indias Love Lyrics | Page 3

a sky more fiercely blue,
I came to you!
You told me tales of your vivid life?Where death was cruel and danger rife--?Of deep dark forests, of poisoned trees,?Of pains and passions that scorch and freeze,?Of southern noontides and eastern nights,?Where love grew frantic with strange delights,?While men were slaying and maidens danced,?Till I, who listened, lay still, entranced.?Then, swift as a swallow heading south,
I kissed your mouth!
One night when the plains were bathed in blood?From sunset light in a crimson flood,?We wandered under the young teak trees?Whose branches whined in the light night breeze;?You led me down to the water's brink,?"The Spring where the Panthers come to drink?At night; there is always water here?Be the season never so parched and sere."?Have we souls of beasts in the forms of men??I fain would have tasted your life-blood then.
The night fell swiftly; this sudden land?Can never lend us a twilight strand?'Twixt the daylight shore and the ocean night,?But takes--as it gives--at once, the light.?We laid us down on the steep hillside,?While far below us wild peacocks cried,?And we sometimes heard, in the sunburnt grass,?The stealthy steps of the Jungle pass.?We listened; knew not whether they went?On love or hunger the more intent.?And under your kisses I hardly knew?Whether I loved or hated you.
But your words were flame and your kisses fire,?And who shall resist a strong desire??Not I, whose life is a broken boat?On a sea of passions, adrift, afloat.?And, whether I came in love or hate,?That I came to you was written by Fate?In every hue of the blood-red sky,?In every tone of the peacocks' cry.
While every gust of the Jungle night?Was fanning the flame you had set alight.?For these things have power to stir the blood?And compel us all to their own chance mood.?And to love or not we are no more free?Than a ripple to rise and leave the sea.
We are ever and always slaves of these,?Of the suns that scorch and the winds that freeze,?Of the faint sweet scents of the sultry air,?Of the half heard howl from the far off lair.?These chance things master us ever. Compel?To the heights of Heaven, the depths of Hell.
Whether I love you? You do not ask,?Nor waste yourself on the thankless task.?I give your kisses at least return,?What matter whether they freeze or burn.?I feel the strength of your fervent arms,?What matter whether it heals or harms.
You are wise; you take what the Gods have sent.?You ask no question, but rest content?So I am with you to take your kiss,?And perhaps I value you more for this.?For this is Wisdom; to love, to live,?To take what Fate, or the Gods, may give,?To ask no question, to make no prayer,?To kiss the lips and caress the hair,?Speed passion's ebb as you greet its flow,--?To have,--to hold,--and,--in time,--let go!
And this is our Wisdom: we rest together?On the great lone hills in the storm-filled weather,?And watch the skies as they pale and burn,?The golden stars in their orbits turn,?While Love is with us, and Time and Peace,?And life has nothing to give but these.?But, whether you love me, who shall say,?Or whether you, drifting down my way?In the great sad River of Chance and Change,?With your looks so weary and words so strange,?Lit my soul from some hidden flame?To a passionate longing without a name,
Who shall say??Not I, who am but a broken boat,?Content for a while to drift afloat?In the little noontide of love's delights
Between two Nights.
Valgovind's Boat Song
Waters glisten and sunbeams quiver,
The wind blows fresh and free.?Take my boat to your breast, O River!
Carry me out to Sea!
This land is laden with fruit and grain,
With never a place left free for flowers,?A fruitful mother; but I am fain
For brides in their early bridal hours.
Take my boat to your breast, O River!
Carry me out to Sea!
The Sea, beloved by a thousand ships,
Is maiden ever, and fresh and free.?Ah, for the touch of her cool green lips,
Carry me out to Sea!
Take my boat to your breast, dear River,
And carry it out to Sea!
Kashmiri Song by Juma
You never loved me, and yet to save me,?One unforgetable night you gave me?Such chill embraces as the snow-covered heights?Receive from clouds, in northern, Auroral nights.?Such keen communion as the frozen mere?Has with immaculate moonlight, cold and clear.?And all desire,?Like failing fire,?Died slowly, faded surely, and sank to rest?Against the delicate chillness of your breast.
Zira: in Captivity
Love me a little, Lord, or let me go,?I am so weary walking to and fro?Through all your lonely halls that were so sweet?Did they but echo to your coming feet.
When by the flowered scrolls of lace-like stone?Our women's windows--I am left alone,?Across the yellow Desert, looking forth,?I see the purple hills towards the north.
Behind those jagged Mountains' lilac crest?Once lay the captive bird's small rifled nest.?There was my brother slain, my sister bound;?His