LITMIR.BIZ

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painted roofs

      And clustering columns, where cool fountains—fringed

      With lotus and nelumbo—danced, and fish

      Gleamed through their crystal, scarlet, gold, and blue.

      Great-eyed gazelles in sunny alcoves browsed

      The blown red roses; birds of rainbow wing

      Fluttered among the palms; doves, green and grey,

      Built their safe nests on gilded cornices;

      Over the shining pavements peacocks drew

      The splendours of their trains, sedately watched

      By milk-white herons and the small house-owls.

      The plum-necked parrots swung from fruit to fruit;

      The yellow sunbirds whirred from bloom to bloom,

      The timid lizards on the lattice basked

      Fearless, the squirrels ran to feed from hand,

      For all was peace: the shy black snake, that gives

      Fortune to households, sunned his sleepy coils

      Under the moon-flowers, where the musk-deer played,

      And brown-eyed monkeys chattered to the crows.

      And all this house of love was peopled fair

      With sweet attendance, so that in each part

      With lovely sights were gentle faces found,

      Soft speech and willing service, each one glad

      To gladden, pleased at pleasure, proud to obey;

      Till life glided beguiled, like a smooth stream

      Banked by perpetual flowers, Yasodhara

      Queen of the enchanting Court.

      But innermost,

      Beyond the richness of those hundred halls,

      A secret chamber lurked, where skill had spent

      All lovely fantasies to lull the mind.

      The entrance of it was a cloistered square—

      Roofed by the sky, and in the midst a tank—

      Of milky marble built, and laid with slabs

      Of milk-white marble; bordered round the tank

      And on the steps, and all along the frieze

      With tender inlaid work of agate-stones.

      Cool as to tread in summer-time on snows

      It was to loiter there; the sunbeams dropped

      Their gold, and, passing into porch and niche,

      Softened to shadows, silvery, pale, and dim,

      As if the very Day paused and grew Eve.

      In love and silence at that bower's gate;

      For there beyond the gate the chamber was,

      Beautiful, sweet; a wonder of the world!

      Soft light from perfumed lamps through windows fell

      Of nakre and stained stars of lucent film

      On golden cloths outspread, and silken beds,

      And heavy splendour of the purdah's fringe,

      Lifted to take only the loveliest in.

      Here, whether it was night or day none knew,

      For always streamed that softened light, more bright

      Than sunrise, but as tender as the eve's;

      And always breathed sweet airs, more joy-giving

      Than morning's, but as cool as midnight's breath;

      And night and day lutes sighed, and night and day

      Delicious foods were spread, and dewy fruits,

      Sherbets new chilled with snows of Himalay,

      And sweetmeats made of subtle daintiness,

      With sweet tree-milk in its own ivory cup.

      And night and day served there a chosen band

      Of nautch girls, cup-bearers, and cymballers,

      Delicate, dark-browed ministers of love,

      Who fanned the sleeping eyes of the happy Prince,

      And when he waked, led back his thoughts to bliss

      With music whispering through the blooms, and charm

      Of amorous songs and dreamy dances, linked

      By chime of ankle-bells and wave of arms

      And silver vina-strings; while essences

      Of musk and champak and the blue haze spread

      From burning spices soothed his soul again

      To drowse by sweet Yasodhara; and thus

      Siddartha lived forgetting.

      Furthermore,

      The King commanded that within those walls

      No mention should be made of death or age,

      Sorrow, or pain, or sickness. If one drooped

      In the lovely Court—her dark glance dim, her feet

      Faint in the dance—the guiltless criminal

      Passed forth an exile from that Paradise,

      Lest he should see and suffer at her woe.

      Bright-eyed intendants watched to execute

      Sentence on such as spake of the harsh world

      Without, where aches and plagues were, tears and fears,

      And wail of mourners, and grim fume of pyres.

      `T was treason if a thread of silver strayed

      In tress of singing-girl or nautch-dancer;

      And every dawn the dying rose was plucked,

      The dead leaves hid, all evil sights removed

      For said the King, "If he shall pass his youth

      Far from such things as move to wistfulness,

      And brooding on the empty eggs of thought,

      The shadow of this fate, too vast for man,

      May fade, belike, and I shall see him grow

      To that great stature of fair sovereignty

      When he shall rule all lands—if he will rule—

      The King of kings and glory of his time."

      Wherefore, around that pleasant prison house

      Where love was gaoler and delights its bars,

      But far removed from sight—the King bade build

      A massive wall, and in the wall a gate

      With brazen folding-doors, which but to roll

      Back on their hinges asked a hundred arms;

      Also the noise of that prodigious gate

      Opening was heard full half a yojana.

      And inside this another gate he made,

      And yet within another—through the three

      Must one pass if he quit that pleasure-house.

      Three mighty gates there were, bolted and barred,

      And over each was set a faithful watch;

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