قراءة كتاب The Birth of the War-God: A Poem by Kálidása
تنويه: تعرض هنا نبذة من اول ١٠ صفحات فقط من الكتاب الالكتروني، لقراءة الكتاب كاملا اضغط على الزر “اشتر الآن"
class="smcap">Adderley Library, Marlborough College,
April, 1853.
A [This date is much too early. It has been shown by H. Jacobi from the astrological data contained in the poem that the date of its composition cannot be placed earlier than about the middle of the fourth century A.D.]
B Goethe says:
Willst du was reizt and entzückt, willst du was sättigt and nährt,
Willst du den Himmel, die Erde, mit einem Namen begreifen;
Nenn' ich Sakontalá, Dich, und so ist Alles gesagt.
See also Schlegel's Dramatic Literature, Lect. II., and Humboldt's Kosmos, Vol. II. p. 40, and note.
C [Ten more cantos, of very inferior merit, have been published since this was written.]
D [With a Latin translation.]
PRELIMINARY NOTE.
PRONUNCIATION.
As a general rule, the Sanskrit vowels are to be sounded like those of the Italian alphabet, except the short or unaccented a, which has the sound of that letter in the word America: "pandit," a learned man, being pronounced pundit.
| á, long or accented | like a in father. |
| e | like e in they. |
| i, short or unaccented, | like i in pick. |
| í, long or accented | like i in pique. |
| o | like o in go. |
| u, short or unaccented, | like u in full. |
| ú, long or accented | like u in rule. |
The diphthongs ai and au are pronounced severally like i in rise and ou in our.
The consonants are sounded as in English. In the aspirates, however, the sound of h is kept distinct; dh, th, ph, bh, &c., being pronounced as in red-hot, pent-house, up-hill, abhor, &c. G is always hard, whatever vowel follows.
In Himálaya the accent is on the second syllable.
THE
BIRTH OF THE WAR-GOD.
Canto First.
UMÁ'S NATIVITY.
His towery summits till they cleave the sky,
Spans the wide land from east to western sea,
Lord of the hills, instinct with deity.
For him, when Prithu ruled in days of old
The rich earth, teeming with her gems and gold,
The vassal hills and Meru drained her breast,
To deck Himálaya, for they loved him best;
And earth, the mother, gave her store to fill
With herbs and sparkling ores the royal hill.
Proud mountain-king! his diadem of snow
Dims not the beauty of his gems below.
For who can gaze upon the moon, and dare
To mark one spot less brightly glorious there?
Who, 'mid a thousand virtues, dares to blame
One shade of weakness in a hero's fame?
Oft, when the gleamings of his mountain brass
Flash through the clouds and tint them as they pass,
Those glories mock the hues of closing day,
And heaven's bright wantons hail their hour of play;
Try, ere the time, the magic of their glance,
And deck their beauty for the twilight dance.
Dear to the sylphs are the cool shadows thrown
By dark clouds wandering round the mountain's zone,
Till frightened by the storm and rain they seek
Eternal sunshine on each loftier peak.
Far spread the wilds where eager hunters roam,
Tracking the lion to his dreary home.
For though the melting snow has washed away
The crimson blood-drops of the wounded prey,
Still the fair pearls that graced his forehead tell
Where the strong elephant, o'ermastered, fell,
And clinging to the lion's claws, betray,
Falling at every step, the mighty conqueror's way.
There birch-trees wave, that lend their friendly aid
To tell the passion of the love-lorn maid,
So quick to learn in metal tints to mark
Her hopes and fears upon the tender bark.
The glorious hymn with all his whispering reeds,
Till heavenly minstrels raise their voice in song,
And swell his music as it floats along.
There the fierce elephant wounds the scented bough
To ease the torment of his burning brow;
And