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"They tell me I may be deceived,
I neither care nor know,
A lesser love might well be grieved,
With me it is not so.
My Lord has lain within these arms,
And all the rest may go!"

One of the Deva-dasi (girls dedicated to a Temple)


"Shrivelled and aged, with never a rest,
I wearily wander from Shrine to Shrine.
But Vishnu is branded across my breast;
The Gods themselves were once lovers of mine!"

Lala (the door-keeper)


"I went to him as a willing bride,
He did not use me ill,
A little, perhaps, he broke my pride
Against his reckless will.

"But any sorrowful time of tears
Through which he made me go,
I minded not, for in after years,
I loved his children so!"

Yasmini (the dancing-girl)


"I am clothed with the gold and the kisses of men
And, nightly, new love-songs impassion the air;
For awhile I shall dance in the torchlight, and then
Comes darkness; and desolate depths of despair.

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