Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/73

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II.]
BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE.
43

ing heart). I adore your beauty beaming with holy maidenhood which inspires no carnal desire. When I do not see you, my mind becomes restless; and as I see you. my heart is soothed. O washerwoman. my lady, you are to me what parents are to helpless children. The three prayers that a Brāhmin offers daily to his God, I offer to you. You are to me as holy as Gāyatrī from which the Vedas originated. I know you to be the goddess Sarasvatī who inspires songs. I know you to be the goddess Pārvatī.—You are the garland of my neck,—my heaven and earth, my nether-worlds and my mountains—nay, my whole universe! you are the apple of my eyes. Without you all is dark to me. My eyes are soothed when I see you. The day I do not see your moonlike face, I remain like a dead man. I cannot, for a moment, forget your grace and beauty. O, tell me how I may deserve y0ur fayvour? You are my sacred hymns and the essence of my prayers. My love for your maidenly beauty has not any element of physical desire in it. Says Chaṅdīdās,—the love of the washerwoman is pure gold tested by touch-stone."[1] Chaṅdīdās was himself

  1. শুন রজকিনী রামি, ও দুটি চরণ, শীতল বলিয়া,
    শরণ লইলাম আমি।
    রজকিনী রূপ, কিশোরী স্বরূপ, কাম গন্ধ নাহি তায়।
    না দেখিলে মন, করে উচাটন, দেখিলে পরাণ জুড়ায়॥
    তুমি রজকিনী আমার রমণী, তুমি হও মাতৃ পিতৃ।
    ত্রিসন্ধ্যা যাজন, তোমার ভজন, তুমি বেদমাতা গায়ত্রী॥
    তুমি বাগ্বাদিনী, হরের রমণী, তুমি সে গলার হারা।
    তুমি স্বর্গ মর্ত্ত্য, পাতাল, পর্ব্বত, তুমি সে নয়ানের তারা॥