Two Magnificent Tributes

Changanpuzha’s tribute to Kalidasa reminded one of the magnificent tribute
to Dante by Longfellow.

I enter, I see thee in the gloom,
OF the long aisles, O Poet Saturnine !

( Saturn, the Melancholy Planet,
  Was rising at Dante’s Nativity )

Thy Sacred Song is like the Trump of Doom,
And in thy bosom what human sympathies,
What soft compassion glows; as in the skies,
The tender stars with their shaded lamps relume.

With snow white veil and garments of flame,
She ( Beatrice ) stands beforee thee who not long ago,
Filled thy young  heart with the passion and the woe,
From which thy Song and and all its splendors came !

I wake amaze and in the windows bright,
Shine the forms of holy who died,
Hereafter martyred,
And hereafter crucified.

And the Great Rose upon its leaves displays,
Love’s triumph and the angellc roundelays,
With splendor upon splendor multiplied,
And Beatrice again at Dante’s side !

O star of Morning and Liberty,
O Bringer of the Light, whose splendor
Shines above darkness of Alps,
Forerunner of the day that is to be !

About Kalidasa, the Poet Laureate of Kerala wrote,

Centuries may have come and gone,
After thy rise in the Orient,
But in the eternal horizon of Universal Memory,
Thou art the star which changeth not !

O intellectual great ! Thou lit a Coral Light,
In the bosom of universal culture !
Into that Silver Light of Poetry,
Human intellects are magnetically drawn !

In the holiest of holy lands,

Wherein the Geetha is dissolved,

Any Poetry which sprouts,

Will come to sacred fruition.

Unlike clouds that disappear

Love alters not nor wanes

Thou madest such clouds sIng Love ETERNAL
In Thy noble poem, Megha Sandesa !

Thou taught Justice and Rghteousness,

Though the Greatest Exemplar, Lord Rama,

One of the greatest Exemplars,

Lord proved that Dharma is all in all!

Thou made the Divine Mother

Shine eternally like the Eternal lover !

Pining eternally for Her Beloved,

In mighty Kumara Sambhava

Thy statue worshipping Lord Shiva

Became one of the greatest  ever

In World Sculpture,the classic Immortal Lover,

Pining for Purusha, Her Lord.

Thou made a statement grand.

That  that the  body comes first ,before all.

Without Body, no Self Actualisation,

Sareeram Adyam Khalu Dharma Sadhanam !

Thou defined Self as Universe pervading

Ya Sthita Vyapya Viswam ………

Thou defined HIm as Atheist greatest,

As to Him, there is no principle higher !

( jagadeeso Nireeswarah ! )