SPRING FESTIVAL
I
"Lo! Gokul's young lover[1] came making his love
One morning in springtime so fine, oh! so fine!
And Gokul's young lover came forth to the grove
Where milkmaids were milking their kine, their own kine,
For bright love was beaming on earth and the sky,
A soft, wicked leer was in Gokul's dark eye.
II
'Oh! sweet is your milk, but still sweeter your faces,'
Said Gokul's young shepherd to the girls, to the girls,
'And deep in your dark eyes are love's hidden traces,
And brighter than sky are your curls, your soft curls,
For bright love is beaming on earth and the sky,
Then greet me, sweet maids, with a smile in your eye!'
III
Said milkmaids, with laughter, to Gokul's young lover,
'We milk and we sell in the fair, in the fair,
We're honest young maidens, we trust not a rover,
Whose love is as fleeting as the air, as the air,
Though bright love is beaming on earth and the sky,
Run home, Gokul, home, with a smack on your eye!'"
The last line was screamed, rather than sung, as a parting shot to the discomfited minister of Nobo Kumar, and Nobo Kumar himself joined in the laughter, and sent some presents to the brave Amazons.
Turning from the narrow lane, the party of Nobo Kumar went to visit a more respectable portion of the bazaar. A colony of North-west merchants had settled in this place, which was accordingly called Khotta-bazaar, or the market of the North-westerns.
- ↑ Krishna pastured his cows in the village of Gokul. The word is a pun on the name of Gokul Das.
53
