By friends and strangers? Thus can they
Mid dance, and song, and jest, be gay?
For thee alone, my love, I wear
The jewels in my flowing hair,
For thee the glance, for thee the smile,
For thee this heart which knows no guile:
And blest, supremely blest I'll be
With one kind word and look from thee.
Hymn to Shiva.
Shiva! whom all the gods in heaven obey,
Thou mightiest, deign to hear my humble prayer!
I've sinned. Oh, save me from the fiend Despair,
Which turns to gloom the sunshine of the day!
The angry storms of Fate around me play,
Strange sounds are hurtling through the troubled air,
Be thou my steadfast rock, my guide, and stay.
Thou who art king of all the things I see,
Thou who art clothed in glory and in light,
Thou from whose tresses sprang, in radiance bright,
The sacred Ganges rolling wide and free,
Thou art my hope—lo! here I bring to thee,
To find forgiveness in thy awful sight,
These varied offerings on my bended knee.
Dread lord of Uma, to whose golden shrine
In far Benares countless pilgrim bands,
From Indian cities and from distant lands,
Yearly repair in never-ending line,
I too will visit that abode divine,
If I but now receive thy high commands;—
Oh, leave me not in bitter grief to pine!
