Poems By Arjava

The Avatara

MAGNET of all the world's desire,

Soul of all music, shepherd of starry gyre,

Gopal, Yasoda's foster-child, the demon-slayer,

The beauty-hungry hearts to Thee aspire—

Limber and lovely Lord, Brindavon's fluteplayer.

Blue lotus borne on stem of gold,

Mace, discus, trumpet did Vasudev behold,

And Devaki, while wind and rain and levin weltered ;

Thus were the kinghood and divinity foretold—

Doom of Mathura's house by Kansa's dungeon sheltered.

Cradled in Vasudeva's arms

The Peerless One finds haven from those harms

Of throne-usurping Kansa where the hallowed dream-way,

Named Yamuna, mirrors the guardian palms

Of Gokula and spreads to the moon her fleckered gleam-way.

Singing with joy, Yasoda knelt;

In Nanda's house the Flawless Beauty dwelt.

The Golden Age is here, the rhythmic waters brimming—

No more mid arid harsh nesses unfelt :

And hearts have heard the flute-breath of Vaikuntha's hyming.

December 7,1932.