Ṛtusaṃhāra 3.1 — Śarad, autumn
काशांशुका विकचपद्ममनोज्ञवक्त्रा
सोन्मादहंसरवनूपुरनादरम्या।
आपक्वशालिरुचिरानतगात्रयष्टिः
प्राप्ता शरन्नववधूरिव रूपरम्या॥
kāśāṃśukā vikaca-padma-manojña-vaktrā
sonmāda-haṃsa-rava-nūpura-nāda-ramyā
āpakva-śāli-rucirānata-gātra-yaṣṭiḥ
prāptā śaran nava-vadhūr iva rūpa-ramyā
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Autumn has come dressed as a bride: white reed-grass for her clothes, a face like an open lotus, the cries of wild geese for her anklets, and a body bending like rice ripe in the field.
How the sense would be said plainly today.
Metre
Vasantatilakā
— — ⏑ — ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ — —
Fourteen graceful syllables — the metre changes with the season, and so does the pace of the images.
— is a long beat, ⏑ a short one.
Why this verse matters
- The image
- A whole landscape read as a single body: grass for cloth, lotus for a face, birdsong for jewellery, ripe rice for the bend of a waist.
- The craft
- Three enormous bahuvrīhi compounds, then the release: शरत्, autumn, named only at the end, and immediately compared to a bride.
- The moment
- The opening of the autumn canto, after the monsoon has passed.
A short practice
What sound does the poet hear as the bride's anklets?