The imagery is wonderful, the passion, sublime, the rhythm, rich. The poem transcends the limitations of religious faith through its range of imagery, its seriousness, its delight in both body and spirit.
Quotations from the translation by Norman Brown:
1.Damsels in hundreds, with their locks, disheveled,
their sarees[traditional Indian female clothing]
flying off their figures, their girdles bursting asunder with force,
their silk garments slipping down,
run after a decrepit, ugly and impotent man,
who falls within the range of Thy side-glances.
2. Slender as a streak of lightning, composed of the essence of sun, moon, and fire,
situated above the six lotuses (cakras), the manifestation of you
in the forest of great lotuses, those with mind free of stain and illusion
who view it, mighty ones, experience a flood of supreme joy.
3. Let my idle chatter be the muttering of prayer, my every manual movement the execution
of ritual gesture,
my walking a ceremonial circumambulation,
my eating and other acts the rite of sacrifice,
my lying down prostration in worship, my every pleasure enjoyed with dedication of
myself,
let whatever activity is mine be some form of worship of you.
-- my lying down prostration in worship, my every pleasure enjoyed with dedication of
myself,
let whatever activity is mine be some form of worship of you.
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