Translations of Shakuntala and Other Works | Page 5

of a canto are not infrequently written in a metre of more compass than the remainder.
I have called The Cloud-Messenger an elegiac poem, though it would not perhaps meet the test of a rigid definition. The Hindus class it with The Dynasty of Raghu_ and _The Birth of the War-god as a kavya, but this classification simply evidences their embarrassment. In fact, Kalidasa created in The Cloud-Messenger_ a new _genre. No further explanation is needed here, as the entire poem is translated below.
The short descriptive poem called The Seasons has abundant analogues in other literatures, and requires no comment.
It is not possible to fix the chronology of Kalidasa's writings, yet we are not wholly in the dark. Malavika and Agnimitra was certainly his first drama, almost certainly his first work. It is a reasonable conjecture, though nothing more, that Urvashi was written late, when the poet's powers were waning. The introductory stanzas of _The Dynasty of Raghu_ suggest that this epic was written before _The Birth of the War-god_, though the inference is far from certain. Again, it is reasonable to assume that the great works on which Kalidasa's fame chiefly rests--Shakuntala_, _The Cloud-Messenger_, The Dynasty of Raghu_, the first eight cantos of The Birth of the War-god--were composed when he was in the prime of manhood. But as to the succession of these four works we can do little but guess.
Kalidasa's glory depends primarily upon the quality of his work, yet would be much diminished if he had failed in bulk and variety. In India, more than would be the case in Europe, the extent of his writing is an indication of originality and power; for the poets of the classical period underwent an education that encouraged an exaggerated fastidiousness, and they wrote for a public meticulously critical. Thus the great Bhavabhuti spent his life in constructing three dramas; mighty spirit though he was, he yet suffers from the very scrupulosity of his labour. In this matter, as in others, Kalidasa preserves his intellectual balance and his spiritual initiative: what greatness of soul is required for this, every one knows who has ever had the misfortune to differ in opinion from an intellectual clique.
III
Le nom de Kalidasa domine la po��sie indienne et la r��sume brillamment. Le drame, l'��pop��e savante, l'��l��gie attestent aujourd'hui encore la puissance et la souplesse de ce magnifique g��nie; seul entre les disciples de Sarasvat? [the goddess of eloquence], il a eu le bonheur de produire un chef-d'oeuvre vraiment classique, o�� l'Inde s'admire et o�� l'humanit�� se reconna?t. Les applaudissements qui salu��rent la naissance de ?akuntala �� Ujjayin? ont apr��s de longs si��cles ��clat�� d'un bout du monde �� l'autre, quand William Jones l'eut r��v��l��e �� l'Occident. Kalidasa a marqu�� sa place dans cette pl��iade ��tincelante o�� chaque nom r��sume une p��riode de l'esprit humain. La s��rie de ces noms forme l'histoire, ou plut?t elle est l'histoire m��me.[4]
It is hardly possible to say anything true about Kalidasa's achievement which is not already contained in this appreciation. Yet one loves to expand the praise, even though realising that the critic is by his very nature a fool. Here there shall at any rate be none of that cold-blooded criticism which imagines itself set above a world-author to appraise and judge, but a generous tribute of affectionate admiration.
The best proof of a poet's greatness is the inability of men to live without him; in other words, his power to win and hold through centuries the love and admiration of his own people, especially when that people has shown itself capable of high intellectual and spiritual achievement.
For something like fifteen hundred years, Kalidasa has been more widely read in India than any other author who wrote in Sanskrit. There have also been many attempts to express in words the secret of his abiding power: such attempts can never be wholly successful, yet they are not without considerable interest. Thus Bana, a celebrated novelist of the seventh century, has the following lines in some stanzas of poetical criticism which he prefixes to a historical romance:
Where find a soul that does not thrill?In Kalidasa's verse to meet?The smooth, inevitable lines?Like blossom-clusters, honey-sweet?
A later writer, speaking of Kalidasa and another poet, is more laconic in this alliterative line: Bhaso hasah, Kalidaso vilasah--Bhasa is mirth, Kalidasa is grace.
These two critics see Kalidasa's grace, his sweetness, his delicate taste, without doing justice to the massive quality without which his poetry could not have survived.
Though Kalidasa has not been as widely appreciated in Europe as he deserves, he is the only Sanskrit poet who can properly be said to have been appreciated at all. Here he must struggle with the truly Himalayan barrier of language. Since there will never be many Europeans, even among the cultivated, who will find it possible to study the intricate