the most celebrated, and probably the first in point of time, of the old Bengali poets, runs as follows:
जनम अबधि हम रूप निहारनु नयन ना तिरपित भेल॥
सोइ मधूर बोल श्रबणहि शुननु श्रुति पथे परश ना गेल॥
कत मधू यामिनी रभसे गोयाइनु ना बुझिनु कैछन ना केल॥
लाख लाख युग हिये हिये राखनु तबु हिया जुडन ना गेल॥
यत यत रसिक जन रसे अनुगमन अनुभव काहु ना देख॥
विद्यापति कहे प्राण जुडाइते लाखे ना मिलल एक॥०॥
"Since my birth I have gazed on (his) form, (yet) my eyes have not been satiated,
Friend! that sweet voice I have heard with my ears, (their) touch has not left the passage of hearing.
What sweet nights in love have I spent, and knew not what happened.
For millions of ages I have kept heart to heart, still my heart has not cooled.
Many, many lovers pursue (their) love, the true lover no one sees;
Vidyâpati saith, to cool the soul in a lakh not one can be found."[1]
Here तिरपित=तृप्त; गोयाइनु a causal from गम्; कैछन is merely a Bengali way of writing स (see Chapter III., § 58). The language of this poem closely resembles that spoken at the present time in Tirhut. The preterites भेल, गेल, and केल are still in use there, though the first and last are now obsolete in Bengal proper. Such forms as निहारनु for निहारिलाम् are still heard in conversation, though now banished from books.
The language of these poems differs very little from early Hindi, as will be seen from comparing it with the extract from Chand given in § 5 (note). Kabi Kankan, who lived about 1570, and the author of the Chaitanya Charanâmṛita, are also celebrated early Bengali writers. The Bengali poets Kasidâs
- ↑ For this hitherto unpublished poem I have to thank my friend Babu Jagadishnath Rai, who has also procured for me others of the same kind. Vidyâpati's date is fixed as early as A.D. 1320; but I am disposed to doubt this.
