________________
LOVE AND BEAUTY
( From Desi Nam Mala )
The man has a dark complexion and the girl has a complexion like a white Champak flower. She seems to be a streak on the black touch-stone (Black touch-stone is used for checking the purity of gold or silver.)
My body did not come in contact with his, my lips did not touch his, friend, everything froze when I looked at the lotus like face of my lover.
My fingers are shattered by nails counting days (of his return) that were given to me by my lover when he had left.
Bring me back my lover today though he has offended me, because one needs fire even though it has burnt one's house.
The more the darkish (girl) learns of the crookedness of her eyes, the more does the God of love sharpen his arrows on a hard stone. (This describes the piercing look of a girl )
As the lover was all of a sudden sighted by the lady, while driving away crows, half her bracelets dropped to the earth and the rest cracked with joy
If she loved me, she must have been dead, if she is alive she does not love me ( she could not have survived this long). In either case the fair one is lost to me, why o wicked cloud, are you thundering (in vain)?
168
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
