THE HARMONY OF VIRTUE

258 The Harmony of Virtuehoney-drunken bees and its leaves tender with little opening buds.The moon at night gazes down at us like an unveiled face in theskies, the racing stream dashes its ripples in the wild-duck's face,the wind comes trembling through the burdened rice-stalks, dancingwith the crowding Courbucs, making one flowery ripple of thelotus-wooded lake. Here there can be no longer any hesitation.These descriptions which remain perpetually with the eye, visibleand concrete as an actual painting, belong, in the force withwhich they are visualised and the magnificent architecture of phrasewith which they are presented, to Kalidasa alone among Sanskritpoets. Other poets, his successors or imitators, such as Banaor even Bhavabhuti, overload their description with words anddetails; they have often lavish colouring but never an equal powerof form; their figures do not appear to stand out of the canvasand live.And though we do not find here quite the marvellous harmoniesof verse and diction we meet in the Raghu, yet we docome across plenty of preparation for them. Here, for instance,is a verse whose rapidity and lightness restrained by a certainhalf-hidden gravity is distinctly Kalidasa's:Jvlit pvnv*×" pvRtana' drIzu Sf¦$it p$ŒinnadW" xuZkv'xSqlIzu -p[srit t*,m?ye lB/v*i×" =,en Glpyit m*gvg| p[aNtlGno dvaiGn" --jvalati pavanavÐddhaÕ parvatÀnÀÌ darÈØu sphuÒati paÒuninÀdaiÕ ÙuØkavaÌÙasthalÈØuprasarati tÐÍamadhye labdhavÐddhiÕ kØaÍena glapayati mÐgavargaÌ prÀntalagno davÀgniÕ“Clinging to the woodland edges the forest fire increases withthe wind and burns in the glens of the mountains; it crackleswith shrill shoutings in the dry bamboo reaches; it spreads in thegrasses gathering hugeness in a moment and harasses the beastsof the wilderness.”And, again, for honeyed sweetness and buoyancy what canbe more Kalidasian than this?pu'SkoiklXcUtrsasven mÒ" ip[ya' cuMbit ragòZ$" -guHjn( iÜrefo_PyymMbujSq" ip[y' ip[yaya" p[kroit ca$Œ --puÌskokilaÙcÓtarasÀsavena mattaÕ priyÀÌ cumbati rÀgahÐØÒaÕguÜjan dvirepho'pyayamambujasthaÕ priyaÌ priyÀyÀÕ prakaroti cÀÒu