Abhijñānaśākuntalam 5.2
रम्याणि वीक्ष्य मधुरांश्च निशम्य शब्दान्
पर्युत्सुकीभवति यत्सुखितोऽपि जन्तुः।
तच्चेतसा स्मरति नूनमबोधपूर्वं
भावस्थिराणि जननान्तरसौहृदानि॥
ramyāṇi vīkṣya madhurāṃś ca niśamya śabdān
paryutsukī-bhavati yat sukhito 'pi jantuḥ
tac cetasā smarati nūnam abodha-pūrvaṃ
bhāva-sthirāṇi jananāntara-sauhṛdāni
Tap any word to see what it means and how it works in the line.
No word selected yet — choose one above and its meaning, grammar and root appear here.
Why does beauty make even a happy person ache? Surely because the mind is remembering, without knowing that it remembers, affections from another life that have settled deep in it.
How the sense would be said plainly today.
Metre
Vasantatilakā
— — ⏑ — ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ — —
Fourteen syllables, 'the ornament of spring' — light, balanced, and much loved for reflective verses.
— is a long beat, ⏑ a short one.
Why this verse matters
- The image
- The verse has no picture of its own; it is about the effect that pictures have on us.
- The craft
- One sentence, suspended across four lines, with the explanation held back to the very last compound — जननान्तरसौहृदानि, 'loves of another birth'. The delay is the poem.
- The moment
- Act Five. Duṣyanta, under the curse, hears a song and feels an inexplicable sadness — he is grieving for a wife he cannot remember.
A short practice
Match each word to its meaning.