AMAR SHOBHANA | Elegy | Vilāp
1
When lotus last in the pukur bloomed
And a water drop fell from a lotus leaf...
A bright young star early dropped in the darkened western sky.
kamala-dala-jala, jīvana talamala
I mourn, and shall mourn a note of eternal sadness.
2
But ever-returning spring, Vasant
Hope sure to me you bring.
Kandarpa-koṭi-kamanīya-viśeṣa-śobhaṁ
Reality is Beautiful: Shobhana
Krishna will save you will save me!
Beauty will save the world!
Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram
Amar Shobhana! We saviors of each other!
3
The rising sun makes happy the Chakravaka
But brings unbearable sadness to the Blue Lotus.
O blue, blue, bloom, you clench your petals
And rage against the disappearance of the Krishna Moon.
But what auṣadha could quell the anguish in my soul?
‘kṛṣṇa-bhakta-viraha vinā duḥkha nāhi dekhi para’
4
Of gigantic jñan, my gentle son,
Vidya Rañjan, Jyotir Bhushan, consulted you!
O promising western fallen Jiva star!
O shades of night—O moody, mournful knight!
O bright star disappeared—O mayic murk that hid the star!
O inexorable fate, I bow powerless in shame—O my helpless self!
5
O sullen cloud that shrouds my heart.
kurari vilapasi tvaṁ vīta-nidrā na śeṣe
Blue Lotus and star and pakṣi twined with the chant of my soul,
In the fragrant kuñja near the tamāl dusk and dim,
We but aspiring, "petals on a wet black bough"
Who will wail with me now?
Strange slokas on this sleepless, moonless night....
—Bhakti Sudhir Goswami
On the Disappearance of Shobhana Krishna Prabhu
N.B. With apologies to, in order of appearance/aparādha: Walt Whitman; Govinda Das KaviRaja; Matthew Arnold; Adi Kavi Brahma; MahaKavi Swami B.R. Sridhar; александр солженицын; Федор Достоевский; MahaKavi Magha; Walt Whitman; MahaKavi Kali Das; Jyotir Veda; Dylan Thomas; Ayur Veda; Bhakta Meghe Sri Ramananda Raya; Srila Jiva Goswami Prabhu; John Keats; Veda Vyas; The Queens of Dwaraka; KaviRaja Krishnadas; Ezra Pound; T.S. Eliot, and Walt Whitman.
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