A cry;

The dust obscures the luminous evening star; As the cows are driven home by Ananda the cowherd; Gobinda the village headman takes his daughter Aruna’s horoscope to the astrologer; To find a husband for her;

The trees dance and bend in bowers; She looks at him in wonder; He takes her by her hand and they wander; Aruna and Ananda; Through paths lit by crystal fires; Under a sky as tender; As a newborn flower; Quivering silver; In a monsoon shower;

The grass greets the rain with a green shiver; Of inflamed desire; The cicada calls its lover; With a prayer; Sung in a hoarse whisper; The frog croaks an entreaty into the thunder; The wind replies with a murmur; Of a rumour;

That the peacock is dancing with his tail unfurled in a blue-green shimmer; In the forest cover; And that the crows the jackals the wolves and the hyenas are struck dumb and silently gather; And hover in the shadows with the vultures; As the cloud banishes the hot summer; And the honey-bee plunders; A last mouthful of nectar; And while the hibiscus ponders; Aruna is wedded to Rajinder; The son of Gobinda’s neighbour; A caste brother;

The lightning rips the sky asunder; In the forest the dancing peacock falls into the jaws of dark hunters; And the crows the jackals the wolves the hyenas and the vultures feast on the peacock’s bloodied feathers; In the seething river the boat flounders; Pulling on its tether; And in the distance -- a cry lingers;