The Sacred Pastoral of Brindaban
From a series of Rajput paintings giving incidents in the village life of Krishna, the Divine Herdsman, and Rādhā, his beloved among the herd-girls, in the mystic drama of God and the Soul.
Cow-dust
In the first dusk Krishna, the Divine Herdsman, drives the cows through the village gates:
Like a river they flow, white and dun and spotted, with strings of bells about their throats and their large-eyed calves at their sides;
The hands of the herd-boys are on their sleek flanks, they are singing as they follow.
The girls carrying pitchers of water turn to look, and from the windows in white walls
Veiled women lean down, smilingly stretching out hennatipped fingers
Towards Krishna who walks slowly, blue as the evening smoke,
Drawing all souls after him with the music of his flute.
Like a river they flow, white and dun and spotted, with strings of bells about their throats and their large-eyed calves at their sides;
The hands of the herd-boys are on their sleek flanks, they are singing as they follow.
The girls carrying pitchers of water turn to look, and from the windows in white walls
Veiled women lean down, smilingly stretching out hennatipped fingers
Towards Krishna who walks slowly, blue as the evening smoke,
Drawing all souls after him with the music of his flute.
