E-text prepared by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
SANDHYA
SONGS OF TWILIGHT
BY
DHAN GOPAL MUKERJI
AUTHOR OF "LAYLA-MAJNU" AND "RAJANI"
NINETEEN SEVENTEEN
PAUL ELDER AND COMPANY
SAN FRANCISCO
Copyright, 1917
By PAUL ELDER AND COMPANY
SAN FRANCISCO
TO
MRS. HANCOCK BANNING
MRS. WILLIAM CLARK, JR.
FOREWORD
Like "Rajani" [perhaps more than], "Sandhya" is a slender rill that has drawn its music from my Bengali which has told upon its English structure. This and many other faults of these poems are due to their unyielding adherence to spontaneity.
"Sandhya" came then, as "Rajani" in its own way through the bed of my Bengali reflecting its sound and sense, and trying to echo back its music that descends on all with the fading twilight.
Dhan Gopal Mukerji.
N. B.—Since some of these poems were born without, and defy titles, I have refrained from forcing any on them.
CONTENTS
SANDHYA, SONGS OF TWILIGHT
SYMBOLISM
SOURCE OF SINGING
"O, OLD! O, NEW!"[1]
[1] "O, Old! O, New!" is the cry of a "Poáti," e. g., a mother's cry to her unborn child. "Poáti" has no precise English synonym.
LASSITUDE
FORLORN
AFTER A BENGALI SONG
10
MOONRISE
11
AT VENTURA, CALIFORNIA
12
13
14
15
THE DREAM OF HIS SOUL
16
THE EURASIAN
17
18
THE INFIRM BEGGAR SINGS
19
[2] Flowers full of perfume, abounding in Lower Bengal, India.
20
COLOR-HARMONIES
21
SANATAN
(THE ABSOLUTE)[3]
[3] The word absolute is the synonym for the Sanskrit word Sanatan, meaning Eternal and Immutable Truth.
22
COMING OF THE FOG
23
24
THE END
25
THE CONFLUENCE
26
27
TO
LEO B. MIHAN
28
CHOPIN'S FUNERAL MARCH
29
30
HENRIK IBSEN
31
AFTER HEARING "MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME"
32
THE COMING OF THE TIDE OF NIGHT
33
DEAD LOVE
34
35
WEARINESS
[4] In a Hindu temple conch shells are blown during or at the close of a worship.
36
37
REMORSE
38
POET
39
WANDERER
40
AT DAWN
41
42
43
RAINY NIGHT
44
GHOSTS
45
RAIN
46
EVENING WORSHIP
47
48
49
TRUCE
50
A PARALLEL
51
52
DISAPPOINTMENT
53
BUDDHA
54
55
56
AT SUNDOWN
57
58
59
60
61
SOUND BUTTERFLIES
(IN A FOUNTAIN)
62
63
64
FAREWELL
(AFTER A HINDUSTANI SONG)
65
SATIETY
66
67
CHATTERTON
68
69
"WHO KNOWS"
70
THE FIRST VISION
71
SHANTI[5]
[5] Shanti is the Sanskrit for "Peace."
ERRATA
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