Latest / Classic Educational Library / The Golden Threshold - Sarojini Naidu
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Palanquin bearers. Lightly, O, lightly, we bear her along. She
- 0:05Speaker 1: sways like a flower in the wind of our song.
- 0:08Speaker 1: She skims like a bird on the foam of a string.
- 0:10Speaker 1: She floats like a laugh from the lips of a dream. Gaily, O, gaily,
- 0:15Speaker 1: we glide and we sing. We bear her along like
- 0:18Speaker 1: a pearl on a string. Softly, Oh, softly, we bear
- 0:21Speaker 1: her along. She hangs like a star in the dew
- 0:24Speaker 1: of our song. She springs like a beam on the
- 0:27Speaker 1: brow of the tide. She falls like a tear from
- 0:30Speaker 1: the eyes of a bride. Lightly, O, lightly, we glide
- 0:34Speaker 1: and we sing. We bear her along like a pearl
- 0:37Speaker 1: on a string. End of Section one. Wandering singers Where
- 0:44Speaker 1: the voice of the wind calls our wandering feet, through
- 0:47Speaker 1: echoing forest and echoing street. With lutes in our hands,
- 0:51Speaker 1: ever singing, we roam. All men are our kindred. The
- 0:54Speaker 1: world is our home. Our lays are of cities whose
- 0:57Speaker 1: luster is shed, the laughter and beauty of women long dead,
- 1:01Speaker 1: the swords of old battles, the crown of old kings,
- 1:05Speaker 1: and happy and simple and sorrowful things. What hope shall
- 1:09Speaker 1: we gather? What dreams shall we sow? Where the wind
- 1:12Speaker 1: calls our wandering footsteps, we go. No love bids us terry,
- 1:17Speaker 1: No joy bids us wait. The voice of the wind
- 1:21Speaker 1: is the voice of our fate. End of section two.
- 1:25Speaker 1: Indian weavers Weavers weaving at break of day? Why do
- 1:29Speaker 1: you weave a garment so gay?
- 1:32Speaker 2: Blue?
- 1:32Speaker 1: Is the wing of the halcy?
- 1:33Speaker 3: Unwild?
- 1:34Speaker 1: We weave the robes of a new born child. Weavers
- 1:38Speaker 1: weaving at fall of night? Why do you weave a
- 1:41Speaker 1: garment so bright like the plumes of a peacock? Purple
- 1:44Speaker 1: and green? We weave the marriage veils of a queen?
- 1:48Speaker 1: Weavers weaving solemn and still? Why do you weave in
- 1:52Speaker 1: the moonlight chill, white as a feather and white as
- 1:56Speaker 1: a cloud? We weave a dead man's funeral shroud? End
- 2:01Speaker 1: of section three. Cormorandel Fishers Rise, brothers, Rise the wakening skies,
- 2:08Speaker 1: pray to the morning light. The wind lies asleep in
- 2:11Speaker 1: the arms of the dawn like a child that has
- 2:13Speaker 1: cried all night. Come. Let us gather our nets from
- 2:16Speaker 1: the shore and set our catamarans free to capture the
- 2:20Speaker 1: leaping wealth of the tide. For we are sons of
- 2:23Speaker 1: the sea. No longer delay. Let us hasten away in
- 2:26Speaker 1: the track of the sea gulls call. The sea is
- 2:29Speaker 1: our mother, the cloud is our brother, The waves are
- 2:31Speaker 1: our comrades. All what though we toss at the fall
- 2:34Speaker 1: of the sun, where the hand of the sea god drives,
- 2:38Speaker 1: he who holds the storm by the hair will hide
- 2:41Speaker 1: in his breast our lives. Sweet is the shade of
- 2:45Speaker 1: the cocoanut glade, and the scent of the mango grove.
- 2:48Speaker 1: And sweet are the sands at the full oh moon,
- 2:51Speaker 1: with the sounds of the voices we love, but sweeter,
- 2:54Speaker 1: o brothers, the kiss of the spray, and the dance
- 2:56Speaker 1: of the wild foam's glee. Row, brothers, Row to the
- 3:00Speaker 1: blue of the verge, where the low sky mates with
- 3:03Speaker 1: the sea. End of section four. The snake charmer, whither
- 3:08Speaker 1: dost thou hide from the magic of my flute call?
- 3:11Speaker 1: And what moonlight tangled meshes of perfume, or the clustering
- 3:15Speaker 1: kiovas guard the squirrel's slumber where the deep woods glimmer
- 3:19Speaker 1: with the jasmin's balloom. I'll feed thee, O beloved, on
- 3:23Speaker 1: milk and wild red honey. I'll bear thee in a
- 3:26Speaker 1: basket of rushes, green and white, to a palace bower
- 3:29Speaker 1: where golden vested maidens thread with mellow laughter, the petals
- 3:33Speaker 1: of delight. Whither dost thou loiter by what murmuring hollows
- 3:39Speaker 1: where oleanders scatter their ambrosial fire. Come thou, subtle bride
- 3:43Speaker 1: of my mollfluous wooing, Come thou silver breasted moonbeam of desire.
- 3:50Speaker 1: End of section five corn grinders, O, little mouse, Why
- 3:55Speaker 1: dost thou cry while merry stars laugh in the sky?
- 3:59Speaker 1: Alas Alas my lord is dead, Ah, who will ease
- 4:02Speaker 1: my bitter pain? He went to seek a millet grain
- 4:06Speaker 1: in the rich farmer's granary shed. They caught him in
- 4:09Speaker 1: a bated snare and slew my lover unaware. Alas Alas
- 4:14Speaker 1: my lord is dead, A little dear, Why dost thou
- 4:18Speaker 1: moan hid in the forest bower alone? Alas Alas my
- 4:22Speaker 1: lord is dead, Ah who will quiet my lament? At
- 4:27Speaker 1: fall of even tide, he went to drink beside the
- 4:30Speaker 1: river head. A waiting hunter threw his dart and struck
- 4:34Speaker 1: my lover through the heart. Alas Alas my lord is dead,
- 4:39Speaker 1: A little bride, While dost thou weep with all the
- 4:42Speaker 1: happy world asleep? Alas Alas my lord is dead, Ah,
- 4:47Speaker 1: who will stay these hungry tears, or still the want
- 4:51Speaker 1: of famish'd years and crown with love my marriage, bed
- 4:55Speaker 1: my soul burns with a quenchless fire that lit my
- 4:59Speaker 1: lover's funeral Higher alas alas my lord is dead. End
- 5:05Speaker 1: of section six.
- 5:07Speaker 3: Village song. Honey child, honey child, whither are you going?
- 5:13Speaker 3: Would you cast your jewels all to the breeze is blowing?
- 5:18Speaker 3: Would you leave the mother who on golden grain has
- 5:21Speaker 3: fed you? Would you grieve the lover who is riding
- 5:25Speaker 3: forth to wed you mother mine, to the wild forest.
- 5:30Speaker 3: I am going where upon the chumper boughs, the chumpa
- 5:34Speaker 3: buds are blowing, to the coil haunted river isles, where
- 5:38Speaker 3: lotus lilies glisten. The voices of the fairy folk are
- 5:42Speaker 3: calling me. Oh, listen, honey child, honey child. The world
- 5:47Speaker 3: is full of pleasure, of bridal songs and cradle songs
- 5:52Speaker 3: and sandal scented leisure. Your bridal robes are in the looms,
- 5:57Speaker 3: silver and saffron glowing. Your bridal cakes are on the hearth. Oh,
- 6:02Speaker 3: whither are you going? The bridal songs and cradle songs
- 6:07Speaker 3: have cadences of sorrow. The laughter of the sun today,
- 6:12Speaker 3: the wind of death tomorrow, far sweeter sound the forest
- 6:18Speaker 3: notes where forest streams are falling, O, mother mine, I
- 6:23Speaker 3: cannot stay. The fairy folk are calling. End of section seven.
- 6:31Speaker 3: In praise of Hennah. A coquilla called from a Hennah spray,
- 6:39Speaker 3: Lira lirie lirah lyrie, hasten maidens, hasten away to gather
- 6:46Speaker 3: the leaves of the Hennah tree. Send your pictures afloat
- 6:51Speaker 3: on the tide. Gather the leaves as the dawn be old,
- 6:56Speaker 3: grind them in mortars of amber and gold, the fresh
- 7:00Speaker 3: green leaves of the Henna tree. A cochilla called from
- 7:06Speaker 3: a Henna spray, Lirah lirie lirah lerie. Hasten maidens, hasten
- 7:13Speaker 3: away to gather the leaves of the Henna tree. The
- 7:18Speaker 3: tilcas red for the brow of a bride and beetlenuts,
- 7:22Speaker 3: red for lips that are sweet, but for lily like
- 7:27Speaker 3: fingers and feet, the red the red of the Henna tree.
- 7:34Speaker 3: End of section eight. Harvest him men's voices, Lord of
- 7:41Speaker 3: the lotus, Lord of the harvest, bright and munificent, Lord
- 7:45Speaker 3: of the morn Thine is the bounty that prospered our sewing.
- 7:50Speaker 3: Thine is the bounty that nurtured our corn. We bring
- 7:55Speaker 3: THEE our songs in our garlands for tribute. The gold
- 7:59Speaker 3: of our fields and the gold of our fruit, O
- 8:03Speaker 3: giver of mellowing radiance, we hail THEE. We praise THEE.
- 8:07Speaker 3: O Suria with symbol and flute. Lord of the Rainbow,
- 8:14Speaker 3: Lord of the harvest, Great and beneficent, Lord of the main.
- 8:20Speaker 3: Thine is the mercy that cherished our pharaohs. Thine is
- 8:25Speaker 3: the mercy that fostered our grain. We bring THEE our
- 8:30Speaker 3: thanks and our garlands for tribute. The wealth of our valleys,
- 8:34Speaker 3: new garnered and ripe, O sender of rain and the
- 8:39Speaker 3: duw fall. We hail THEE. We praise THEE. Varuna with
- 8:43Speaker 3: symbol and pipe, women's voices, Queen of the god Flower,
- 8:51Speaker 3: Queen of the harvest, Sweet and omnipotent Mother O Earth.
- 8:56Speaker 3: Thine is the plentiful bosom that feeds us. Thine is
- 9:00Speaker 3: the womb where our riches have birth. We bring THEE
- 9:04Speaker 3: our love and our garlands for tribute. With gifts of
- 9:08Speaker 3: thy opulent giving, we come, O source of our manifold gladness.
- 9:15Speaker 3: We hail THEE. We praise thee O Prithee with symbol
- 9:20Speaker 3: and drum, all voices, Lord of the Universe, Lord of
- 9:29Speaker 3: our being, Father, eternal, ineffable home. Thou art the seed
- 9:35Speaker 3: and the scythe of our harvest. Thou art our hands
- 9:39Speaker 3: and our heart and our home. We bring THEE our
- 9:43Speaker 3: lives and our labor for tribute. Grant us thy succor,
- 9:48Speaker 3: thy counsel, thy care, O life of all life and
- 9:52Speaker 3: all blessing. We hail THEE. We praise THEE O Brahma
- 9:57Speaker 3: with symbol and prayer. End off Section nine. Indian love song.
- 10:05Speaker 3: She like a serpent, to the calling voice of flutes,
- 10:11Speaker 3: glides my heart into thy fingers, Oh my love, where
- 10:18Speaker 3: the night wind, like a lover, leans above his jasmine
- 10:24Speaker 3: gardens and siri shah bowers, and on right boughs of
- 10:30Speaker 3: many colored fruits, bright parrots cluster like vermilion flowers. He,
- 10:41Speaker 3: like the perfume in the petals of a rose, hides
- 10:46Speaker 3: thy heart within my bosom, Oh my love, like a garland,
- 10:53Speaker 3: like a jewel, like a dove that hangs its nest
- 10:58Speaker 3: in the Ashoka tree. Lie still, O Love, until the
- 11:03Speaker 3: morning sows her tents of gold on fields of ivory.
- 11:11Speaker 3: End of section ten. Cradle Song from groves of spice
- 11:19Speaker 3: o'er fields of rice, athwart the lotus stream. I bring
- 11:25Speaker 3: for you a glint with dew, a little lovely dream.
- 11:30Speaker 3: Sweet shut your eyes. The wild fire flies dance through
- 11:36Speaker 3: the fairy neme from the poppy bowl. For you, I
- 11:40Speaker 3: stole a little lovely dream, dear eyes, good night in
- 11:46Speaker 3: golden light. The stars around you gleam on you. I
- 11:51Speaker 3: press with soft caress a little lovely dream. End of
- 11:58Speaker 3: section eleven. South thee lamp of my life. The lips
- 12:04Speaker 3: of death hath blown thee out with their sudden breath.
- 12:09Speaker 3: Naught shall revive thy vanish'd spark. Love must I dwell
- 12:15Speaker 3: in the living dark tree of my life. Death's cruel
- 12:20Speaker 3: foot hath crush'd thee down to thy hidden root. Nought
- 12:25Speaker 3: shall restore thy glory fled? Shall the blossom live when
- 12:30Speaker 3: the tree is dead? Life of my life, Death's bitter
- 12:35Speaker 3: sword hath sever'd us like a broken word, rent us
- 12:40Speaker 3: in twain, who are but one? Shall the flesh survive
- 12:44Speaker 3: when the soul is gone? End of section twelve. Song
- 12:51Speaker 3: of a Dream. Once in the dream of a night
- 12:57Speaker 3: I stood lone in the life of a magical wood,
- 13:02Speaker 3: sole deep in visions, that poppy like sprang, and spirits
- 13:06Speaker 3: of truth were the birds that sang, And spirits of
- 13:10Speaker 3: love were the stars that glowed, And spirits of peace
- 13:15Speaker 3: were the streams that flowed in that magical wood in
- 13:19Speaker 3: the land of sleep. Lone in the light of that
- 13:24Speaker 3: magical grove, I felt the stars of the spirits of
- 13:28Speaker 3: love gather and gleam round my delicate youth, and I
- 13:32Speaker 3: heard the song of the spirits of truth to quench
- 13:36Speaker 3: my longing, I bent me low by the streams of
- 13:40Speaker 3: the spirits of peace that flow in that magical wood
- 13:44Speaker 3: in the land of sleep. End of Section thirteen. Whomayun
- 13:51Speaker 3: to Zebeha from the Urdu. You flaunt your beauty in
- 13:57Speaker 3: the rose, your glory in the dawn, your sweetness in
- 14:02Speaker 3: the nightingale, your whiteness in the swan. You haunt my
- 14:07Speaker 3: waking like a dream, my slumber like a moon, pervade
- 14:12Speaker 3: me like a musky scent, Possess me like a tune.
- 14:17Speaker 3: Yet when I crave of you, my sweet one, tender
- 14:21Speaker 3: moment's grace, you cry. I sit behind the veil. I
- 14:26Speaker 3: cannot show my face. Shall any foolish veil, divide my
- 14:32Speaker 3: longing from my bliss. Shall any fragile curtain hide your
- 14:36Speaker 3: beauty from my kiss? What war is this? Of thee
- 14:41Speaker 3: and me? Give all the wanton strife. You are the
- 14:45Speaker 3: heart within my heart, the life within my life. End
- 14:52Speaker 3: of section fourteen. Autumn Song, like a joy on the
- 14:59Speaker 3: heart of a sorrow. The sunset hangs on a cloud,
- 15:04Speaker 3: a golden storm of glittering sheaves of fair and frail
- 15:08Speaker 3: and fluttering leaves. The wild wind blows in a cloud,
- 15:14Speaker 3: hark to a voice that is calling to my heart.
- 15:18Speaker 3: In the voice of the wind. My heart is weary
- 15:21Speaker 3: and sad and alone for its dreams, like the fluttering
- 15:26Speaker 3: leaves have gone, and why should I stay behind? End
- 15:32Speaker 3: of section fifteen.
- 15:34Speaker 2: Alabaster Like this alabaster box, whose art is frail as
- 15:40Speaker 2: a casher flower, is my heart, carbon with delicate dreams,
- 15:46Speaker 2: and wrought with many a subtle and exquisite thought. Therein
- 15:52Speaker 2: I treasure the spice and scent of rich and passionate memories,
- 15:58Speaker 2: blent like odors of cinnamon, sandal and clove, of song
- 16:03Speaker 2: and sorrow and life and love. End of section sixteen.
- 16:10Speaker 2: Ecstasy Cover mine eyes, Oh my love, Mine eyes that
- 16:17Speaker 2: are weary of bliss, as of light that is poignant
- 16:21Speaker 2: and strong. How silence my lips with a kiss, my
- 16:26Speaker 2: lips that are weary of song. Shelter my soul, Oh,
- 16:31Speaker 2: my love, My soul is bent low with the pain
- 16:35Speaker 2: and the burden of love, like the grace of a
- 16:37Speaker 2: flower that is smitten with rain. Oh, shelter my soul
- 16:42Speaker 2: from thy face. End of Section seventeen, to my very fancies, nay,
- 16:51Speaker 2: no longer I may hold.
- 16:52Speaker 1: You in my palin quin bearers. Lightly, oh lightly, we
- 16:57Speaker 1: bear her along. She sways like a flower in wind
- 17:00Speaker 1: of our song. She skims like a bird on the
- 17:02Speaker 1: foam of a string. She floats like a laugh from
- 17:05Speaker 1: the lips of a dream. Gaily, Oh, gaily, we glight
- 17:09Speaker 1: and we sing. We bear her along like a pearl
- 17:12Speaker 1: on a string. Softly, Oh, softly, we bear her along.
- 17:16Speaker 1: She hangs like a star in the dew of our song.
- 17:19Speaker 1: She springs like a beam on the brow of the tide.
- 17:22Speaker 1: She falls like a tear from the eyes of a bride. Lightly,
- 17:26Speaker 1: oh lightly, we glide and we sing. We bear her
- 17:29Speaker 1: along like a pearl on a string. End of Section one.
- 17:34Speaker 2: Spirit soft caresses nor like lotus leaves enfold you in
- 17:39Speaker 2: the tangles of my tresses. Very fancies fly away to
- 17:43Speaker 2: the white cloud wildernesses fly away. Nay, no longer you
- 17:49Speaker 2: may linger with your laughter lighted faces. Now I am
- 17:53Speaker 2: a thought worn singer in life's high and lonely places.
- 17:57Speaker 2: Very fancies fly away to right wind in woven spaces,
- 18:02Speaker 2: fly away. End of Section.
- 18:05Speaker 4: Eighteen, presented at the Ramzandhrbar. Deign Prince, my tribute to
- 18:12Speaker 4: receive this lyric offering to your name, who round your
- 18:17Speaker 4: jeweled scep turbine, the lilies of a poet's fame, beneath
- 18:21Speaker 4: whose sway concordant dwell, The peoples whom your laws embrace
- 18:26Speaker 4: in brotherhood of diverse creeds and harmony of diverse face.
- 18:33Speaker 4: The votaries of the prophet's faith, of whom you are
- 18:36Speaker 4: the crowning chief, and they who bear on veaved brows
- 18:41Speaker 4: their mystic symbols of belief. And they who worshiping the
- 18:46Speaker 4: sun fled o'er the old Iranian sea, and they who
- 18:51Speaker 4: bow to him who trod the midnight waves of galilee,
- 18:56Speaker 4: sweet sumptuous fables of Baghdad. The splendors of your court
- 19:01Speaker 4: recall the tortures of a thousand knights blaze through a
- 19:05Speaker 4: single festival, and saki singers down the streets pour for
- 19:10Speaker 4: us in a stream divine, from goblets of your love
- 19:14Speaker 4: guzzles the rapture of your Sufi wine, Prince, where your
- 19:20Speaker 4: radiant cities smile, grim hills their somber vigils. Keep your
- 19:26Speaker 4: ancient forests hoard and hold the legends of their centuried sleep.
- 19:32Speaker 4: Your birds of peace, white, pinioned, float over ruined, fort
- 19:37Speaker 4: and storied. Plain your faithfuls towards sleepless God, the harvests
- 19:43Speaker 4: of your gold and grain. God give you joy. God
- 19:48Speaker 4: give you grace to shield the truth, in smite the wrong,
- 19:52Speaker 4: to honor virtue, valor worths, to cherish faith in fastest song,
- 20:00Speaker 4: Luster of your days, outshine the deeds FIDUSI sung your
- 20:05Speaker 4: name within a nation's prayer, your music on a nation's tongue.
- 20:14Speaker 4: End of Section nineteen. Lately the serpents are asleep among
- 20:20Speaker 4: the poppies. The fireflies light the soundless panther's way to
- 20:25Speaker 4: tangled parts where shy gazas are straying, and parrot plumes
- 20:29Speaker 4: outshine the dying day. Oh soft the lotus buds upon
- 20:34Speaker 4: the stream are stirring like sweet maidens when they dream
- 20:40Speaker 4: a caste mark on the azure brows of heaven. The
- 20:43Speaker 4: golden moon burns sacred, solemn bright. The winds are dancing
- 20:49Speaker 4: in the forest, temper and swooning at the holy feet
- 20:53Speaker 4: of night. Hush in the silence, mystic voices sing, and
- 20:59Speaker 4: make the gods their incense offering.
- 21:05Speaker 5: End of Section twenty.
- 21:07Speaker 2: In the forest, here, o, my heart, let us burn
- 21:12Speaker 2: the dear dreams that are dead. Here in this wood,
- 21:17Speaker 2: let us fashion a funeral fire of fallen white petals
- 21:21Speaker 2: and leaves that are mellow and red. Here, let us
- 21:25Speaker 2: burn them in noon's flaming torches of fire. We are weary,
- 21:30Speaker 2: my heart. We are weary, so long we have borne
- 21:34Speaker 2: the heavy love burden of dreams that are dead. Let
- 21:38Speaker 2: us rest, Let us scatter their ashes away for a while,
- 21:43Speaker 2: let us mourn. We will rest, oh, my heart, till
- 21:47Speaker 2: the shadows are gray in the west. But soon we
- 21:51Speaker 2: must rise, oh my heart, we must wander again into
- 21:56Speaker 2: the war of the world and the strife of the throng.
- 21:59Speaker 2: Let us rise, o, my heart, Let us gather the
- 22:02Speaker 2: dreams that remain. We will conquer the sorrow of life
- 22:07Speaker 2: with the sorrow of song. End of Section twenty one.
- 22:12Speaker 2: Past and future. The new hath come, and now the
- 22:17Speaker 2: old retires, and so the past becomes a mountain cell
- 22:22Speaker 2: where lone apart, older memories dwell in consecrated calm, forgotten
- 22:29Speaker 2: yet of the keen heart that hastens to forget old
- 22:33Speaker 2: longings in fulfilling new desires. And now the soul stands
- 22:38Speaker 2: in a vague, intense expectancy and anguish of suspense on
- 22:44Speaker 2: the dim chamber threshold. Low he sees like a strange
- 22:48Speaker 2: fated bride, as yet unknown, his timid future, shrinking there
- 22:53Speaker 2: alone beneath her marriage veil of mysteries. End of section
- 22:59Speaker 2: twenty two. Children, ye have not lived. To you, it
- 23:04Speaker 2: seems life is the loveliest stalactite of dreams, or carnival,
- 23:08Speaker 2: of careless joys that leap about your hearts like billows
- 23:12Speaker 2: on the deep, in flames of amber and of amethyst. Children,
- 23:18Speaker 2: Ye have not lived, ye, but exist till some resistless
- 23:22Speaker 2: hours shall rise and move your hearts to wake in
- 23:25Speaker 2: hunger after love, and thirst, with passionate longing for the
- 23:30Speaker 2: things that burn your brows with blood red sufferings, till
- 23:35Speaker 2: ye have battled with great grief and feerce, and borne
- 23:38Speaker 2: the conflict of dream shattering years, wounded with fierce desire,
- 23:43Speaker 2: and worn with strife. Children, ye have not lived, for
- 23:49Speaker 2: this is life. End of section twenty three. The poet's
- 23:55Speaker 2: love song in noon did Alice, Oh, love, secure and strong.
- 24:01Speaker 2: I need thee not mad dreams are mine behind the
- 24:04Speaker 2: world to my desire. And hold the wind, a voiceless
- 24:08Speaker 2: captive to my conquering song. I need THEE not. I
- 24:14Speaker 2: am content with these. Keep silence in thy soul beyond
- 24:18Speaker 2: the seas. But in the desolate hour of midnight, when
- 24:22Speaker 2: an ecstasy of starry silence sleeps on the still mountains,
- 24:26Speaker 2: in the soundless deeps, and my soul hungers for thy voice. O,
- 24:31Speaker 2: then love, like the magic of wild melodies, that thy
- 24:37Speaker 2: soul ants are mine across the seas. End of section
- 24:42Speaker 2: twenty four.
- 24:43Speaker 4: To the God of Pain, unwilling Priestess, in thy cruel fane,
- 24:49Speaker 4: long hast thou held me, pitiless, God of Pain, bound
- 24:54Speaker 4: to thy worship by reluctant vows. My tired breast girt
- 24:58Speaker 4: with suffering, and my brows anointed with perpetual weariness. Long
- 25:05Speaker 4: have I burned thy service through the stress of vigorous years,
- 25:10Speaker 4: sad days, and slumberless nights, performing thine inexorable rites for
- 25:16Speaker 4: thy dark altars, balm, nor milk nor rice. But mine
- 25:21Speaker 4: own soul, Thou hast taken for sacrifice, all the rich
- 25:26Speaker 4: honey of my youth's desire, and all the sweet oils
- 25:29Speaker 4: from my crushed life drawn, and all my flower like
- 25:33Speaker 4: dreams and gem like fire of hopes upleaping like the
- 25:38Speaker 4: light of dawn.
- 25:40Speaker 5: I have no more to give.
- 25:43Speaker 4: All that was mine is laid, arrested tribute at thy shrine.
- 25:49Speaker 4: Let me depart, for my whole soul is wrung, and
- 25:53Speaker 4: all my cheerless horizons are sung. Let me depart with
- 25:58Speaker 4: faint limbs. Let let me creep to some dim shade
- 26:03Speaker 4: and sink me down to sleep. End of section twenty five.
- 26:11Speaker 4: The song of Princess Zevonissa, in praise of her own
- 26:15Speaker 4: beauty from the Persian. When from my cheek I lift
- 26:21Speaker 4: my veil, the roses turn with envy pale, and from
- 26:26Speaker 4: their pierced hearts, rich with pain, send forth their fragrance
- 26:31Speaker 4: like a wail or. If perchance one perfumed tress be
- 26:36Speaker 4: lowered to the wind's caress. The honeyed hyacinths complain and
- 26:41Speaker 4: languish in a sweet distress, And when I pause, still
- 26:48Speaker 4: grows among such loveliness is mine. A throng of nightingales
- 26:54Speaker 4: awake and strain their souls into a quivering song.
- 27:00Speaker 5: End of Section twenty six.
- 27:03Speaker 4: Indian dancers, eyes ravished with rapture, celestially panting what passionate
- 27:10Speaker 4: bosoms are flaming with fire, dring deep of the hush
- 27:14Speaker 4: of the Hyacinthe heavens that glimmer around them in fountains
- 27:19Speaker 4: of light, oh wild and entrancing, the strain of keen
- 27:25Speaker 4: music that cleaveth the stars like a wail of desire.
- 27:29Speaker 4: And beautiful dancers with howdy like faces bewhich the voluptuous
- 27:34Speaker 4: watches of night. The scents of red roses and sandalwood
- 27:42Speaker 4: flutter and die in the maze of their gem tangled
- 27:45Speaker 4: hair and smiles are entwining like magical serpents. The poppies
- 27:51Speaker 4: of lips that are opiate sweet, their glittering garments of
- 27:57Speaker 4: purple are burning like tremul starns in the quivering air.
- 28:02Speaker 4: And exquisite, subtle and slow are the tinkle and tread
- 28:07Speaker 4: of their rhythmic slumber.
- 28:09Speaker 5: Soft feet.
- 28:13Speaker 4: Now silent, now singing and swaying and swinging like blossoms
- 28:18Speaker 4: that bentd to the breezes or showers, now wantonly winding.
- 28:23Speaker 5: They flash.
- 28:25Speaker 4: Now they falter and lingering, languish in radiant choir their
- 28:32Speaker 4: jewel goat arms and warm wavering lily, long fingers and
- 28:37Speaker 4: chanted through melodious eurs, eyes ravished with rapture, celestially panting
- 28:43Speaker 4: watch passionate bosoms, a flaming with fire. End of section
- 28:50Speaker 4: twenty seven. My dead dream? Have you found me at last? Oh?
- 28:56Speaker 5: My dream?
- 28:58Speaker 4: Seven ams ago you died and I buried you deep
- 29:02Speaker 4: under forests of snow. Why have you come hither? Who
- 29:06Speaker 4: bade you awake from your sleep and track me beyond
- 29:09Speaker 4: the cerulean foam of the deep. Would you tear from
- 29:14Speaker 4: my linters, these sacred green garlands of leaves?
- 29:18Speaker 5: Would you scare the.
- 29:19Speaker 4: White nested wild pigeons of joy from my eaves? Would
- 29:25Speaker 4: you touch and defile with dead fingers the robes of
- 29:30Speaker 4: my priest? Would you wave your dim moan with the
- 29:34Speaker 4: chantings of love at my feast? Go back to your grave?
- 29:40Speaker 4: O my dream under forests of snow, where a hot
- 29:45Speaker 4: driven child hid you once seven AONs ago, who bade
- 29:50Speaker 4: you arise from your darkness. I bid you depart, profane,
- 29:56Speaker 4: not the shrines I have raised in the clefts of
- 29:58Speaker 4: my heart.
- 30:02Speaker 5: End of Section twenty eight.
- 30:03Speaker 4: Tha mayente tu null in the hour of exile a fragment.
- 30:10Speaker 4: Shalt thou be conquered of a human fate, my liege,
- 30:14Speaker 4: my lover, whose imperial head hath never bent in sorrow
- 30:18Speaker 4: of defeat. Shalt thou be vanquish'd, whose imperial feet have
- 30:24Speaker 4: shattered armies and stamp'd empires dead? Who shall unking thee
- 30:30Speaker 4: husband of a queen, Where thou thy majesty inviolate Earth's glories,
- 30:38Speaker 4: flee of human eyes unseen, Earth's Kingdom's fade to a
- 30:43Speaker 4: remembered dream. But thine henceforth shall be a power supreme,
- 30:49Speaker 4: tazzling command enrich dominion, the winds, thy heralds, and thy vassals,
- 30:56Speaker 4: all the silver belted planets, and the sun, where'er the
- 31:01Speaker 4: radiance of thy coming fall shall down for thee her
- 31:05Speaker 4: saffron footclothes spread, sunset, her purple canopies and red in
- 31:11Speaker 4: serried splendor, and the night unfold her velvet darkness, wrought
- 31:16Speaker 4: with starry cold for kingly raiment soft as signet down.
- 31:23Speaker 4: My hair shall break thy temples like a crown of sapphire's,
- 31:28Speaker 4: and my kiss upon thy brows like setha music lull
- 31:32Speaker 4: thee to repose till the sun yield thee homage of
- 31:37Speaker 4: his light. O King, thy kingdom, who from THEE can
- 31:43Speaker 4: rest what fate shall dare and crown THEE from this breast,
- 31:48Speaker 4: O god born lover, whom my love doth gird and
- 31:52Speaker 4: armor with impregnable delight of hope's triumphant keen, flame, carve
- 31:58Speaker 4: and sword. End of section twenty seven.
- 32:03Speaker 6: The queen's rival stands a one Queen Gulnar sat on
- 32:09Speaker 6: her ivory bed. Around her, countless treasures were spread. Her
- 32:13Speaker 6: chamber walls were richly inlaid with agate, porphyry onyx and jade.
- 32:18Speaker 6: The tissues that veiled her delicate breast glowed with the
- 32:21Speaker 6: hues of a lapwing's crest. But still she gazed in
- 32:25Speaker 6: her mirror and sighed, O, King, my heart is unsatisfied.
- 32:30Speaker 6: King Pheroz, bent from his ebony seat, is thy least
- 32:33Speaker 6: desire unfulfilled? O sweet let thy mouth speak, and my
- 32:38Speaker 6: life be spent to clear the sky of thy discontent.
- 32:42Speaker 6: I tire of my beauty, I tire of this empty
- 32:45Speaker 6: splendor and shadowless bliss, with none to envy, and none gainsay,
- 32:50Speaker 6: no savor or salt hath my dream or day. Queen
- 32:55Speaker 6: Gulnar sighed like a murmuring rose. Give me a rival,
- 32:59Speaker 6: O King Pharoh's stands. A two king Pharaohs spoke to
- 33:04Speaker 6: his chief Vizier, Lo, here tomorrow's dawn be here. Send
- 33:09Speaker 6: forth my messengers over the sea to seek seven beautiful
- 33:13Speaker 6: brides for me, radiant of feature and regal of mien.
- 33:17Speaker 6: Seven handmaidens meet for the Persian queen, seven new moon
- 33:21Speaker 6: tides at the vesper hall. King Pharaohs led to Queen
- 33:25Speaker 6: Gulner's hall. A young queen eyed like the morning star.
- 33:29Speaker 6: I bring the arrival, O Queen Gulnar. But still she
- 33:33Speaker 6: gazed in her mirror and sighed, O, King, my heart
- 33:36Speaker 6: is unsatisfied. Seven queens shone round her ivory bed, like
- 33:41Speaker 6: seven soft gems on a silken thread, like seven fair
- 33:45Speaker 6: lamps in a royal tower, like seven bright petals of
- 33:48Speaker 6: beauty's flower. Queen Gulnar sighed like a murmuring rose, Where
- 33:52Speaker 6: is my rival, O, King Pharaohs Stanza three, When spring
- 33:58Speaker 6: winds waken the mountain floods and kindled the flame of
- 34:01Speaker 6: the tulip buds, When bees grew loud, and the days
- 34:04Speaker 6: grew long, and the peach groves thrilled to the aureole's song.
- 34:08Speaker 6: Queen Gulnar sat on her ivory bed, decking with jewels
- 34:11Speaker 6: her exquisite head, And still she gazed in her mirror
- 34:15Speaker 6: and sighed, O, King, my heart is unsatisfied. Queen Gulna's daughter,
- 34:20Speaker 6: two springtimes old in blue robes bordered with tassels of gold,
- 34:25Speaker 6: ran to her knee like a wildwood fay, and plucked
- 34:27Speaker 6: from her hand the mirror away. Quickly she sat on
- 34:31Speaker 6: her own like curls her mother's filet with fringes of pearls.
- 34:35Speaker 6: Quickly she turned with a child's caprice and pressed on
- 34:39Speaker 6: the mirror a swift, glad kiss. Queen Gulnar laughed like
- 34:43Speaker 6: a tremulous rose. Here is my rival, O, King Pharose.
- 34:49Speaker 6: End of Section thirty. The poet to death tarry awhile,
- 34:55Speaker 6: O death, I cannot die, while yet my sweet life
- 34:58Speaker 6: burgeons with its spring fair is my youth and rich
- 35:02Speaker 6: the echoing bows, where Daddy coolas sing tarry awhile, O death,
- 35:07Speaker 6: I cannot die, with all my blossoming hopes unharvested, my
- 35:11Speaker 6: joys ungarnered, all my songs unsung, and all my tears
- 35:14Speaker 6: and shed tarry a while till I am satisfied of
- 35:18Speaker 6: love and grief, of earth and altering sky, till all
- 35:22Speaker 6: my human hungers are fulfilled. O death, I cannot die.
- 35:28Speaker 6: End of Section thirty one. The Indian gipsy, in tattered
- 35:33Speaker 6: robes that hoard a glittering trace of bygone colors. Broidered
- 35:36Speaker 6: to the knee, behold her daughter of a wandering race,
- 35:40Speaker 6: tameless with the bold falcon's agile grace and the lithe
- 35:44Speaker 6: tiger's sinuous majesty. With frugal skill, her simple wants, she tames.
- 35:49Speaker 6: She folds her tawny heifers and her sheep on lonely meadows.
- 35:53Speaker 6: When the daylight ends ere the quick night, upon her
- 35:56Speaker 6: flock descends like a black panther from the caves of
- 35:59Speaker 6: sleep Thimes river winds in foaming centuries, its changing, swift,
- 36:04Speaker 6: irrevocable course to far off and incalculable seas. She is
- 36:09Speaker 6: twin born with primal mysteries and drinks of life at
- 36:12Speaker 6: times forgotten source end of section thirty two.
- 36:18Speaker 4: To my children, Jesuriah, I thought four, Golden Son of Victory,
- 36:26Speaker 4: born in my life's unclouded morn, in my lambent sky
- 36:30Speaker 4: of love. May your growing glory prove sacred to your
- 36:34Speaker 4: consecration to my heart and to my nation, Son of Victory.
- 36:40Speaker 4: May you be son of song and liberty. But Madam,
- 36:46Speaker 4: I thought three, Lotus Maiden, you who claim all the
- 36:52Speaker 4: sweetness of your name, Lukshmi, Fortune's queen, defend you lotus
- 36:58Speaker 4: born like you, and send you balmy moons of love.
- 37:02Speaker 7: To bless you. Gentle joy winds to caress you, Lotus Maiden,
- 37:08Speaker 7: May you be fragrant of all ecstasy. Ruddhir, I thought, too, little,
- 37:17Speaker 7: Lord of Battle, hail in your newly tempered male, Learn
- 37:22Speaker 7: to conquer, Learn to fight in the foremost flanks of
- 37:26Speaker 7: riot like val Mickey's hero's bold Ruby's girt in epic gold.
- 37:34Speaker 7: Lord of Battle, may you be Lord of love and chivalry.
- 37:40Speaker 7: Leela Money, I that one limpetule of delight severed from
- 37:47Speaker 7: the tender knight of your sheltering mother. Mine leap and sparkle,
- 37:52Speaker 7: dance and shine blithely and securely, set in love's magic coronet,
- 37:59Speaker 7: living uel, may you be laughed, bound in sorrowfree. End
- 38:04Speaker 7: of section thirty three. The Perdana sen Her life is
- 38:10Speaker 7: a revolving dream of languid in sequestered ease. Her girdles
- 38:15Speaker 7: and her filets gleam like changing fires on sunset seas.
- 38:20Speaker 7: Her raiment is like morning mist shot opal gold and
- 38:25Speaker 7: amethyst from thieving light of eyes, impure from covetting sun
- 38:33Speaker 7: or win's caress. Her days are guarded insecure behind her
- 38:38Speaker 7: carven lettuces like jewels in a turbaned crest, like secrets
- 38:44Speaker 7: in a lover's breast. But though no hand, unsanctioned dares
- 38:50Speaker 7: unveil the mysteries of her grace, time lifts the curtain unawares,
- 38:55Speaker 7: and sorrow looks into her face. Who shall prevent the
- 39:00Speaker 7: subtle years? Or shield a woman's eyes from tears? End
- 39:06Speaker 7: of section thirty four.
- 39:08Speaker 6: To youth, O, youth, sweet comrade, youth, wouldst thou be gone?
- 39:15Speaker 6: Long have we dwelt together? Thou and I together drunk
- 39:18Speaker 6: of many an alien dawn, and pluck the fruit of
- 39:20Speaker 6: many an alien sky. Ah fickle friend, must I who
- 39:24Speaker 6: yesterday dreamed forwards too long undimmed ecstasy? Henceforth dream, because
- 39:29Speaker 6: thou wilt not stay backward to transient pleasure into thee.
- 39:34Speaker 6: I give thee back thy false, ephemeral vow, but a
- 39:38Speaker 6: beloved comrade. Here we part, upon my mournful eyelids and
- 39:42Speaker 6: my brow Kiss me, who hold thine image in my heart?
- 39:48Speaker 6: End of section thirty five.
- 39:50Speaker 4: Nightfall in the city of Hyderabad. See how the speckled
- 39:56Speaker 4: sky burns like a pigeon's throat, jeweled with embers of
- 40:00Speaker 4: opal and peridote. See the white river that flashes and scintillates,
- 40:06Speaker 4: curved like a tusk from the mouth of the city
- 40:08Speaker 4: gates hark from the minaret. How the Mercians call floats
- 40:13Speaker 4: like a battle flag over the city wall. From treleased balconies,
- 40:18Speaker 4: languid and luminous faces gleam veiled in a splendor. Voluminous
- 40:24Speaker 4: leisurely elephants wind through the winding lanes, swinging their silver
- 40:28Speaker 4: bells hung from their silver chains. Round the high charminar.
- 40:32Speaker 4: Sounds of gay cavalcades blend with the music of cymbals
- 40:36Speaker 4: and serenades over the city bridge. Night comes Majestica, borne
- 40:42Speaker 4: like a queen to a sumptuous festo. End of section
- 40:48Speaker 4: thirty six. Street cries when dawn's first symbols beat upon
- 40:55Speaker 4: the sky, rousing the world to labour's various cry to
- 41:00Speaker 4: tend the flock, to bind the mellowing grain, from ardent toil,
- 41:04Speaker 4: to forge a little game, and fasting men go forth
- 41:09Speaker 4: on hurrying feet by bread by bread rings down the
- 41:13Speaker 4: eager street, when the earth falters and the waters swoon
- 41:19Speaker 4: with the implacable radiance of noon, and in dim shelters,
- 41:25Speaker 4: coils hush their note, and the faint, thirsting blood in
- 41:29Speaker 4: languid throats graves liquid succor from the cruel heat by
- 41:34Speaker 4: fruit by fruit steals down the panting street, when twilight
- 41:41Speaker 4: twinkling o'er the gay bazaars unfurls the sudden canopy of stars,
- 41:47Speaker 4: when loots are strung and fragrant torches lit on white
- 41:53Speaker 4: roof terraces, where lovers sit drinking together of life's poignant
- 41:59Speaker 4: sweet by flowers, by flowers, floats down the singing street.
- 42:08Speaker 5: End of section thirty seven. To India, O.
- 42:13Speaker 4: Young through all thy immemorial years, Rise, Mother, Rise, regenerate
- 42:18Speaker 4: from thy gloom, and like a bride high mated with
- 42:22Speaker 4: the spears, beget new glories from thine ageless womb. The
- 42:29Speaker 4: nations that in fettered darkness weep, crave THEE to lead them.
- 42:34Speaker 4: Where great mornings break, Mother, Oh Mother, wherefore dost thou sleep?
- 42:39Speaker 4: Arise and answer for thy children's sake, Thy future cause
- 42:45Speaker 4: THEE with a manifold sound to crescent honors, splendors, victories vast.
- 42:52Speaker 4: Waken our slumbering mother, and be crowned, who once weret Empress.
- 42:58Speaker 5: Of the sovereign. End of Section thirty eight.
- 43:05Speaker 4: The royal tombs of Coolconda. I muse among these silent fanes,
- 43:12Speaker 4: whose spacious darkness guards your dust. Around me sleep the
- 43:17Speaker 4: holy plains that hold your ancient wars in trust. I pause,
- 43:24Speaker 4: my dreaming spirit hears across the wind's unquiet tides, the
- 43:29Speaker 4: glimmering music of his spears, the laughter of your royal brides.
- 43:36Speaker 5: In vain o.
- 43:37Speaker 4: Kings, doth time aspire to make your name's oblivion spot,
- 43:44Speaker 4: while yonder Hill wears like attire the ruined grandeur of
- 43:48Speaker 4: your forte. Those centuries falter and decline. Your proven strongholds
- 43:54Speaker 4: shall remain embodied memories of your line in kind nate
- 43:59Speaker 4: legends of your rain, Oh queens in vain old fate
- 44:06Speaker 4: decreed your flower like bodies to the tomb. Death is,
- 44:10Speaker 4: in truth, the vital seed of your imperishable gloom. Each
- 44:15Speaker 4: newborn year, the bulbulls sing their songs of your innocent loves.
- 44:20Speaker 4: Your beauty awakens with the spring to kindle these pomegranate groves.
- 44:29Speaker 5: End of section thirty nine.
- 44:30Speaker 2: To a Buddha seated on a lotus, Lord Buddha, on
- 44:36Speaker 2: thy lotus, thrown with praying eyes and hands a laid
- 44:41Speaker 2: What mystic rapture dost thou own, immutable and ultimate? What
- 44:47Speaker 2: peace unravished of our can annihilate from the world of men?
- 44:53Speaker 2: The wind of change forever blows across the tumult of
- 44:57Speaker 2: our way. Tomorrow's unborn greens depose the sorrows of our yesterday.
- 45:04Speaker 2: Dream yields to dream, Strife follows, strife and death unweaves
- 45:10Speaker 2: the webs of life for us that travail in the heat,
- 45:14Speaker 2: the broken secrets of our bride, the strenuous lessons of defeat,
- 45:20Speaker 2: the flower deferr'd, the fruit denied, but not the peace
- 45:24Speaker 2: supremely One Lord Buddha of thy Lotus Throne. With futile hands,
- 45:30Speaker 2: we seek to gain our inaccessible desire, divine our summits,
- 45:35Speaker 2: to attain with faith that sinks and feet that die,
- 45:40Speaker 2: but nought shall conquer or control the heavenward hunger of
- 45:44Speaker 2: our soul. The end elusive and aphar still lures us
- 45:50Speaker 2: with its beckoning flight, And all our mortal moments are
- 45:55Speaker 2: a session of the infinite. How shall we reach the
- 46:00Speaker 2: great unknown Nirvana of thy Lotus Throne? End of Section forty.
- 46:08Speaker 2: End of the Golden Threshold by Sarajani Naidu