APPENDIX IN the CHAPTER I

If, instead of being simply a casuist, Vatsyayana had had the operatic ( lyric ? ) genius, he ( it ? ) would have begun with a hymn to the god Kama, such as that below (Mr Chezy's translation).

HYMN HAS KAMA

What is this powerful divinity which, hedged farmlands situated in the East of Agra, dashes in the airs ( sights ? ) where spreads the purest light, whereas everywhere the languishing stalks of flowers, refreshed in the first beams ( shelves ? ) of the sun, interlace in cradles, sweet asylums of the harmony, and whereas the light zéphirs steals from them, by deceiving, the most charming flavors?

Hello, unknown power!... Because in the only sign of your graceful head, valleys and wood hurry to adorn their nice-smelling bosoms, and every spread flower suspends, by smiling, from its plaits of musk, the sensational pearls of the dew.

I feel ( smell ? ), yes, I feel ( smell ? ) your divine fire penetrating into my heart, I like you and I kiss, with transport, your altars.

And could you underestimate me?

No, son ( sons;thread ? ) of Mayâ, no, I know your arrows armed with flowers, the redoubtable stick which composes your bow, your banner where shine the given lustre scales, your mysterious weapons.

I felt all your punishments ( efforts ? ), I savored all your pleasures.

Tout-puissant Kâmâ, or, if you prefer it, brilliant majestic Smara, Ananya!

Whatever is the seat of the glory, under such name as we call upon you, seas, the earth ( ground ? ) and the air ( sight ? ) proclaim your power; all bring you their levy, all recognize in you king of the Universe.

Your young partner, the Sensual delight, smiles to your side. She ( it ? ) is hardly veiled by her ( its ? ) sensational dress.

In his ( her;its ? ) continuation ( suite ? ), twelve girls, in the charming, hurt size, advance ( move ? ) with grace ( favour ? ); the delicate fingers walk frivolously on golden ropes, and the round arms interlace in a sensual dance.

On the elegant necks, they arrange pearls more brilliant than the tears of the dawn.

Your banner of purple, rippling in front of them, made glisten in the azure vault of the heavens of the new celestial bodies [ 9 ].

[ Note 9: allusion to the brilliant scales of the fish which crowns the banner of the Indian love.]

God in the flowery arrows, in the bow full of sweetness, delights of the earth ( ground ? ) and the heavens! Your inseparable companion, named Vasanta at the Gods, pleasant ( kind ? ) spring on the earth ( ground ? ), spreads ( widens ? ) under your delicate feet a sweet and soft greensward, raises ( brings up ? ) on your childish head of the impenetrable arceaux to the ardent fires of noon. It is him who, to refresh you, makes lower ( go down;fall ? ) clouds a dew of flavors, which fills ( performs ? ) with new arrows your quiver made more redoubtable, present very expensive of a dearer friend still.

In his ( her;its ? ) order, sweet and affectionate, one thousand loving birds, by the charming charm of their soft modulations, tear away ( extract ? ) from its links the still captive flower.

The friendly hand bends with address the delicious stick, arranges, for rope, a festoon of bees there the fragrant honey of which is so sweet, but of which the prickle, regrettably! Cause of so deep pains.

It is still him who arms ( equips ? ) the sharp point of your lines ( features ? ) which never rest ( base ? ) and hurt ( damage ? ) by all the senses ( directions ? ) the heart and carry ( wear ? ) the frenzy of five flowers there:

Penetrating Tchampaca, similar to the fragrant gold;

Warm Amra filled ( performed ? ) with a heavenly ambroisie;

Drying out him ( it ? ) Késsara in the silvery foliage;

Burning him ( it ? ) Kétaça who throws ( casts ? ) the confusion in the senses ( directions ? );

Brilliant Bilva who pays ( pours ? ) into veins a voracious heat.

What mortal, powerful God, could resist to your power, when Krischna is himself your slave? Krischna which ( who ? ), ceaselessly made drunk with delights in the fortunate plains of Malhoura, makes, under the divine fingers, the pastoral flute resound, and in the melodious agreements of heavenly one harmony, form with the choir of Gopis been in love his ( her;its ? ) charms, sensual dances in the sweet light of Lunus, the mysterious torch of the nights.

O you, charming God! By whom ( which ? ) the birth preceded the creation and whose youth is eternal! That the song of your brahmane enslaved ( overcome ? ) in your laws can, for ever, ring on the sacred edges of the Ganges! And when your favourite bird, spreading ( displaying ? ) its wings of emerald, makes you cross ( exceed ? ) the space in its fast flight ( theft ? ); when in the middle of the silent night, the trembling beams ( shelves ? ) of My ( the moon) slide on the mysterious pension of the favored or unfortunate lovers, when the sweetest influence is the division ( sharing ? ) of your devoted bard, and when, without consuming him ( it ? ), your divine fire warms sensually its heart!

He ( It ? ) is interesting to move closer to this invocation that of the Lucrèce to Venus.