The Genius of Kalidasa

Kalidasa was once asked by a courtesan about a riddle she heard was troubling the scholar class in the king's court:
"Kamale kamala uthpathihi shruyate na drishyate"
(It is heard that on a beautiful lotus, grow two beautiful lotuses. But no one seen it?)

Kalidasa immediately replied:
"Bale tava mukhaamboje katham indeevara dwayam"
(O girl, has not any seen the two wonderful lotus-like eyes that grow in your beautiful lotus-like face?)

Such was the genius of Kalidasa who has given us many classics in Sanskrit dramatics and poetry.

A Fairy on Earth

The protogonist is a fairy that has come to grace the earth from fairyland. Being lent by Paradise to Earth under the promises of hospitality, the author laments the rough phases the fairy encounters during the stay. The author calls for immediate remedy in order to bring back the famed aura to the depressed fairy as well to have Earth reclaim it's fame as a honourable host.

Generations have recorded the lore of beauty,
Of grace compounded by wings and satin ties,
The creation that had been God’s earliest Duty,
The fairies have rightly defined the pride of skies.

Those times that thou plucked one from this clan,
A play of charity that the heaven did on thy account,
O Earth, thy fame is to be written by the élan,
Of hospitality thee displays in a fitting amount.

One such fairy from the order of paradise,
Graces thy plains like a bud in the barren gardens.
The garden awaits the splendor of her blooming trice,
And she, the spring, of which thou are a terse warden.

And then, like the callous breeze in its shoddy stride,
Thou brought disarray to her blossoming sport,
Why? Was it thy famed fear of serendipity’s chide,
That thee chose to play tricks of such pitiful sort?

May the skies and thee seek an immediate heal,
To bring to her, the charm that was her unique trait,
May thy joint efforts at the horizon reveal,
Those enticing scenes on which her dreams parade.

To the Mother

This day would earn wrath for its concealed scam,
Of planting these thorns under my unsuspecting feet,
For hiding my coat when the rains were to slam,
And turning success away, when my palms rose to greet.

Thy smile answered my knock* and eyes questioned my whine,
That wise brow that always soothed my contoured emotions,
The vessel that were tormented by the waves of the marine,
Has indeed found in the motherland, many curative lotions.

Where else could I ask tonight, this love so deep and wide?
Where else can I park this load and need nothing to pay?
In thy embrace, I hide my frame and yet have nothing to hide,
This world forever, is in need of the mother’s cradling sway.

In thy shadow my heart’s unformed stories find courage,
On thy virtuous palm, my tears are no acts of shame,
May this world that thee begot read thy unsaid message,
That it’s your winning smile that brings even the sinner to tame.

Thy winsome love is our lesson for admiration,
And thy embrace, the ocean that dissolves our gloom,
Your uncomplaining tears are a reminder of creation**,
May the Lord make this wide world worth thy womb.

* - Knock of the door

** - tears of pain during child birth

Breath

So overwhelming in silence that it evades memory,
This secret factory and its clandestine mission,
Of life’s endeavors chequered with sorrow and glory,
Is breath and its answers to heart’s ardent percussion.

Some find greatness in form, and some in wealth,
Some in their bloodline, while some in the miles they rove
Some in their fleet and some about envious health,
But where is glory in these without life-breath’s approve?

Victory to a sword is not blood but to it, a solemn respect,
Greatness to man is mere flatter without breath in his reins,
For sword and unrestrained breath are fury’s ready suspects,
Ask history-that helpless spectator to many bloody rains.

Like love whose depth is defined at the hour of separation,
On Death-bed’s stage, we will finally embrace this companion,
“One more hour” we would pine for, to postpone final vacation,
Till the fairies up there call our names in sweet union.