Post by madanmohandas on Sept 27, 2019 15:17:58 GMT -6
Here is a tract from CC unencumbered by the constraint of rhyming, but in the metre as usual, (five footed lines). This was Milton's crucial innovation whereby he sought to emulate the unrhymed hexameter of Homer and the unrhymed epics of Virgil and Ovid. Ancient epics did not acknowledge the use of rhyme as a literary device which includes the Sanskrit epics. Rhyme then is a relatively modern device unknown to the ancients. Andrew Marvel, in his lines on Paradise Lost, talks of rhyme as,
Well might'st thou scorn thy readers to allure,
With tinkling rime, of thy own sense secure;
.......
I too, transported by the mode, offend,
And, while I mean to praise you, must commend.
Thy verse, created, like thy theme sublime,
In number, weight, and measure, needs not rime.
Well, as for that. here is the tract referred to above.
On the Parable of the Creeping vine of Devotion, forming part of Shri Gauranga deva's sermon to Rupa.
Some fortunate soul, having wandered through,
In this world, many lifetimes, may recieve
From the preceptor and Lord Krishna's grace,
The potent seed of love-joy's creeping vine.
Then like a gardener that seed he sows,
And the invigorating water pours
Upon the seed, which here does represent
The hearing and recital of his deeds.
Now as the creeper grows with fair increase,
It transpasses the river Viraja,
And pierces thro' the supreme atmosphere,
Then onward, ever upward finds at last
The region of Goloka Vrindavan.
The vine entwines around the wishing tree,
Of Krishna's feet, and achieves refuge there.
Reposing there it spreads its tendrils far,
And many fruits and flowers does produce.
The gardener still with assiduous care,
The same nourishing water pours amain,
Of daily hearing, and such discipline.
Vaishnav offence is the mad pachyderm,
That tramples down and withers all the vine,
Whence the gardener, diligent, will make
A strong stockade enclosure all around,
And keep the elephant offences out.
Now if from the creepers vigorous growth,
Wild and unwanted offshoots should produce,
Know these to be extraneous desires
For worldly pleasure and liberation;
And many more that cannot here be told,
Such as the vice of forbidden conduct,
A duplicitous conceit, and cruelty
To other beings, and lascivious greed,
And hankering for rank and eminence.
These are some of the wild unwanted growths.
If these offshoots are suffered to increase,
They flourish, that same water taking in;
Depriving the main branch of nourishment.;
And thus the vine of love will stunted be.
Then from the outset the good gardener
Will prune th'unwanted growths with pious care.
Then unrestricted the main branch will grow,
And ultimately to Vrindavan go.
Well might'st thou scorn thy readers to allure,
With tinkling rime, of thy own sense secure;
.......
I too, transported by the mode, offend,
And, while I mean to praise you, must commend.
Thy verse, created, like thy theme sublime,
In number, weight, and measure, needs not rime.
Well, as for that. here is the tract referred to above.
On the Parable of the Creeping vine of Devotion, forming part of Shri Gauranga deva's sermon to Rupa.
Some fortunate soul, having wandered through,
In this world, many lifetimes, may recieve
From the preceptor and Lord Krishna's grace,
The potent seed of love-joy's creeping vine.
Then like a gardener that seed he sows,
And the invigorating water pours
Upon the seed, which here does represent
The hearing and recital of his deeds.
Now as the creeper grows with fair increase,
It transpasses the river Viraja,
And pierces thro' the supreme atmosphere,
Then onward, ever upward finds at last
The region of Goloka Vrindavan.
The vine entwines around the wishing tree,
Of Krishna's feet, and achieves refuge there.
Reposing there it spreads its tendrils far,
And many fruits and flowers does produce.
The gardener still with assiduous care,
The same nourishing water pours amain,
Of daily hearing, and such discipline.
Vaishnav offence is the mad pachyderm,
That tramples down and withers all the vine,
Whence the gardener, diligent, will make
A strong stockade enclosure all around,
And keep the elephant offences out.
Now if from the creepers vigorous growth,
Wild and unwanted offshoots should produce,
Know these to be extraneous desires
For worldly pleasure and liberation;
And many more that cannot here be told,
Such as the vice of forbidden conduct,
A duplicitous conceit, and cruelty
To other beings, and lascivious greed,
And hankering for rank and eminence.
These are some of the wild unwanted growths.
If these offshoots are suffered to increase,
They flourish, that same water taking in;
Depriving the main branch of nourishment.;
And thus the vine of love will stunted be.
Then from the outset the good gardener
Will prune th'unwanted growths with pious care.
Then unrestricted the main branch will grow,
And ultimately to Vrindavan go.