By Suniti Chandra Mishra
Date: 15 August 2000

LET NOT YOUR LOVE BE HEARTLESS

      Let Not Your Love Be Heartless

      O Beetle! Do extend your kisses
      to the little floweret
      lest your love be heartless.
      You are wailing for what grief?
      O lunatic! Don't be impatient.

      The floweret you kissed yesterday,
      fell down,
      and bade farewell to the sweet garden.
      She embraced the soil
      and plundered your goblet of love.

      Had such traits been not existent,
      what would have been the value of love?
      O Beetle! Do extend your kisses
      to the little floweret
      lest your love be heartless.

      Having decorated colors on your face,
      Having played with you the enamoring
      Holi with its golden shades,
      The floweret, sweet smelling in the night
      Expressed her love and you weft sweet dreams.

      In such wise, if the cheater
      doth not cheat you,
      what will be the meaning of
      what we call the mortal world?
      O Beetle! Do extend your kisses
      to the little floweret
      lest your love be heartless.

      This is the ancient trait of Beauty
      in this world:
      first, to invite and then to reject.
      To decorate the beds of heart
      And then to sprinkle poison
      On the flower of love.

      How dare be he a love-insect
      who dares not to embrace the fire?
      O Beetle! Do extend your kisses
      to the little floweret
      lest your love be heartless.

      (c) Suniti Chandra Mishra
      Gwalior, MP, India
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