Stars of the Desert/The Court of Pomegranates
The Court of Pomegranates
The Rani, decked in silk and pearls,
With Jasmin flowers among her curls,
Said, while the stars grew bright above,
"Draw near, O girls, and speak of love!"
Jai (the fan-waver)
"Ah, how shall I tell thee of love, O Queen,
For mine was knotted with hate;
With a dancing-girl he had faithless been
And rendered me desolate.
"He lay in the Tamarind shade at rest,
Where Hunuman's Temple is,
And a little knife crept out of my breast
To bury itself in his!"
Tinchaurya (the scent-sprinkler)
"If Fate should say, 'Thy course is run,'
It would not make me sad;
All that I wished to do is done,
All that I would have, had.
My Lord has left his life with me,
And mine divinely glad!
"They tell me I may be deceived,
I neither care nor know,
A lesser love might well be grieved,
With me it is not so.
My Lord has lain within these arms,
And all the rest may go!"
One of the Deva-dasi (girls dedicated to a Temple)
"Shrivelled and aged, with never a rest,
I wearily wander from Shrine to Shrine.
But Vishnu is branded across my breast;
The Gods themselves were once lovers of mine!"
Lala (the door-keeper)
"I went to him as a willing bride,
He did not use me ill,
A little, perhaps, he broke my pride
Against his reckless will.
"But any sorrowful time of tears
Through which he made me go,
I minded not, for in after years,
I loved his children so!"
Yasmini (the dancing-girl)
"I am clothed with the gold and the kisses of men
And, nightly, new love-songs impassion the air;
For awhile I shall dance in the torchlight, and then
Comes darkness; and desolate depths of despair.
"Oh, Daughters of Virtue, to you it is given
To lull with caresses new life at the breast;
By us, in our beauty, unshamed though unshriven,
The Youth of the Nation is firstly possessed."
Gulabi (a slave)
"The thing we love has endless charms
To while away our discontent;
Men seldom feel the weight of arms,
Or women that of ornament.
"Her hair is softer far than mine,
Her gold-starred teeth more almond white,
Her eyes so often mirror thine,
Small wonder they are always bright!
"Her happiness unmoved I see,
Though I am naught and she is wed,
Because the child thou gavest me
Is living still, and hers is dead!"
The Rani
"How like we are, how all the same,
We think one thought, we play one game,
Beneath one sceptre bend.
To careless slaves or curtained queens
Love is our most delightful means
To a delightful end."