Meghadūta 1.2
तस्मिन्नद्रौ कतिचिदबलाविप्रयुक्तः स कामी
नीत्वा मासान्कनकवलयभ्रंशरिक्तप्रकोष्ठः।
आषाढस्य प्रथमदिवसे मेघमाश्लिष्टसानुं
वप्रक्रीडापरिणतगजप्रेक्षणीयं ददर्श॥
tasminn adrau katicid abalā-viprayuktaḥ sa kāmī
nītvā māsān kanaka-valaya-bhraṃśa-rikta-prakoṣṭhaḥ
āṣāḍhasya prathama-divase megham āśliṣṭa-sānuṃ
vapra-krīḍā-pariṇata-gaja-prekṣaṇīyaṃ dadarśa
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Months went by on that hill. He grew so thin with longing that the gold band slid from his wrist. Then, on the first day of the rainy month, he saw a cloud leaning against the summit — like a great elephant butting playfully at a bank of earth.
How the sense would be said plainly today.
Metre
Mandākrāntā
— — — — | ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ — | — ⏑ — — ⏑ — —
The same slow seventeen-syllable step. Notice how the long opening beats suit 'tasminn adrau' — the mountain sits heavily at the start of the line.
— is a long beat, ⏑ a short one.
Why this verse matters
- The image
- A cloud becomes an elephant — and not any elephant, but one at play, shoulder against a mud bank. The comparison gives the cloud bulk, dark colour, and a kind of animal good humour all at once.
- The craft
- Grief is never stated. It is proved by an object: a bracelet that will no longer stay on a wrist. Sanskrit poetics calls this arthāntaranyāsa of detail — let the small thing carry the large feeling.
- The moment
- The turn of the poem. Everything before this is waiting; from this cloud onward there is a journey.
A short practice
How do we learn that the yakṣa has grown thin with longing?