A Poem from Mirabai

[Guest guest]

Mirabai

 

(1498 - 1565?)

 

English version by

Robert Bly

 

Why Mira Can't Come Back to Her Old House

 

 

The colours of the Dark One have penetrated Mira's body; all the other colours

washed out.

 

Making love with the Dark One and eating little, those are my pearls and my

carnelians.

 

Meditation beads and the forehead streak, those are my scarves and my rings.

 

That's enough feminine wiles for me.

My teacher taught me this.

 

Approve me or disapprove me:

 

I praise the Mountain Energy night and day.

 

I take the path that ecstatic human beings have taken for centuries.

 

I don't steal money, I don't hit anyone.

 

What will you charge me with?

 

I have felt the swaying of the elephant's shoulders;

 

and now you want me to climb on a jackass?

 

Try to be serious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  -- from The Winged Energy of Delight, Translated by Robert Bly

 

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