MADANA
The invisible Madana (or Kama), the Hindu Cupid, is armed with a bow of Sugar-cane, strung with bees, and five arrows, each tipped with a flower exercising a peculiar and distinct influence on the heart; among these, one alone of fatal and unerring flight is headed, and the head covered with honeycomb.
Summer! Summer! soft around,
With a hushed and dream-like sound,
From a beating heart that knows
Too much rapture for repose,
Breathless, tremulous, arise
Murmurs; thick mysterious sighs;
Whispers, faintly wandering by,
Breathe a warning out and die;
Lightly o'er the bending grass,
Changeful gleams and shadows pass;
Through the leaves a conscious thrill
Lightly runs, and all is still;
Like the tree[1] whose branch and stem
Flame with many a sudden gem,
Blushing in its haste to greet
Touch of Beauty's slender feet;
With a hushed and dream-like sound,
From a beating heart that knows
Too much rapture for repose,
Breathless, tremulous, arise
Murmurs; thick mysterious sighs;
Whispers, faintly wandering by,
Breathe a warning out and die;
Lightly o'er the bending grass,
Changeful gleams and shadows pass;
Through the leaves a conscious thrill
Lightly runs, and all is still;
Like the tree[1] whose branch and stem
Flame with many a sudden gem,
Blushing in its haste to greet
Touch of Beauty's slender feet;
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- ↑ The red Asoka, supposed to blossom when its stem comes in contact with the foot of a beautiful woman.
