He: (Shey) (Modern Classics (Penguin)) by Rabindranath Tagore Page A
Authors: Rabindranath Tagore
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course.’
‘Let’s hear your plan.’
‘I’ll say, “Describe my character in four lines. Your ode must please me. The rhyme must be a perfect match.” ’
‘If one could take out patents on methods of bride-choosing, you’d have been a sure candidate. A hymn to the groom, just to begin with! This was how the goddess Uma won in the end!’
‘We must prompt her with the first line, otherwise she won’t have an inkling of my character. The beginning of the ode is to be: “As a man, I perceive you’re extremely queer.”
‘If we insist on a perfect match of three entire lines, the girl will hold her head in her hands in despair. She’ll just have to admit defeat. Let’s hear you give us the next line, Dada.’
I recited:
You’re possessed by a demon, such is my fear.
‘Excellent! But the poem will be incomplete without a few more lines. I’d say, forget the bride, not even her father could find lines to match these. Dada, can you think of anything, sense or nonsense?’
‘Nothing at all.’
‘Then listen—
Jump off the roof with a thud,
Land on your head in the mud;
Just as the fit takes you, any-how-where.’
‘What on earth is that? Where do they speak such a language?’
‘Why, it’s Sanskrit, the language of the gods—at a stage when it had not progressed beyond strange noises.’
‘Any-how-where—what does that mean?’
‘It means, whatever you like. Just as you please. That’s in Bengali. Modern scholars call it a verbal legacy.’
My reverence for the fellow overflowed its banks. He had extraordinary potential in him. I thumped him on the back and told him he had stunned me.
‘It won’t do to stay stunned,’ he declared. ‘We must get going. The auspicious hour set for the wedding is passing. The hour of Babakaran will pass, then Taitilakaran, then Vaishkumbhajog, and after that, Harshanjog, Bishtikaran, and in the end, Asrikjog and Dhanishthanakshatra. 26 The Goswamis 27 maintain that when Vyatipatjog, Balakaran and Parighjog coincide with Garkaran, disaster is imminent. A housewife knows no greater danger than Garkaran. Siddhijog, Brahmajog, Indrajog, Shivajog—none of them occur this week. There’s a faint hope of Bariyanjog, if the seventh of the twenty-seven stars appears in the sky.’
‘No more delay. We must set off immediately. Shout for Puttulal, tell him to bring his motorcar. He’ll have sat down at his spinning wheel by now. He can’t sleep without spinning a while; that’s what driving has done to him.’
We climbed into the car.
We were driving through a forest. It was very dark. A jackal howled somewhere among the thick clumps of weeds guarding a pond. It must have been about half past three in the morning. The noise gave Puttulal such a shock that he drove the car straight into a pool of water. Meanwhile, a frog had got into his clothes and was hopping around wildly in the region of his back. What a shrieking he set up! I tried to soothe him by saying, ‘Puttulal, you keep complaining of backache. Let the frog jump about all it likes, you’ll never get such a fine massage for free!’
I clambered up on to the roof of the car and began calling, ‘Banamali, Banamali!’
Not a sound from the stupid fellow. It was clear he was bundled up in a rug on the platform at Bolpur 28 station, snoring loudly. I felt strongly inclined to go tickle his nose with a fountain pen and make him sneeze. Perhaps that would wake him up.
Meanwhile, my hair was drenched in muddy water. I couldn’t possibly present myself at our friend’s sister-in-law’s without combing it properly. Roused by the hullabaloo, the ducks by the pond had set up a furious honking. With a single bound, I landed among them and, grabbing one, scrubbed vigorously at my head with its wing. That restored my hair to some degree of order. Puttulal suddenly remarked, ‘You were right, Dadababu. That frog hopping over my back is really making me feel quite comfortable. I’m
‘Let’s hear your plan.’
‘I’ll say, “Describe my character in four lines. Your ode must please me. The rhyme must be a perfect match.” ’
‘If one could take out patents on methods of bride-choosing, you’d have been a sure candidate. A hymn to the groom, just to begin with! This was how the goddess Uma won in the end!’
‘We must prompt her with the first line, otherwise she won’t have an inkling of my character. The beginning of the ode is to be: “As a man, I perceive you’re extremely queer.”
‘If we insist on a perfect match of three entire lines, the girl will hold her head in her hands in despair. She’ll just have to admit defeat. Let’s hear you give us the next line, Dada.’
I recited:
You’re possessed by a demon, such is my fear.
‘Excellent! But the poem will be incomplete without a few more lines. I’d say, forget the bride, not even her father could find lines to match these. Dada, can you think of anything, sense or nonsense?’
‘Nothing at all.’
‘Then listen—
Jump off the roof with a thud,
Land on your head in the mud;
Just as the fit takes you, any-how-where.’
‘What on earth is that? Where do they speak such a language?’
‘Why, it’s Sanskrit, the language of the gods—at a stage when it had not progressed beyond strange noises.’
‘Any-how-where—what does that mean?’
‘It means, whatever you like. Just as you please. That’s in Bengali. Modern scholars call it a verbal legacy.’
My reverence for the fellow overflowed its banks. He had extraordinary potential in him. I thumped him on the back and told him he had stunned me.
‘It won’t do to stay stunned,’ he declared. ‘We must get going. The auspicious hour set for the wedding is passing. The hour of Babakaran will pass, then Taitilakaran, then Vaishkumbhajog, and after that, Harshanjog, Bishtikaran, and in the end, Asrikjog and Dhanishthanakshatra. 26 The Goswamis 27 maintain that when Vyatipatjog, Balakaran and Parighjog coincide with Garkaran, disaster is imminent. A housewife knows no greater danger than Garkaran. Siddhijog, Brahmajog, Indrajog, Shivajog—none of them occur this week. There’s a faint hope of Bariyanjog, if the seventh of the twenty-seven stars appears in the sky.’
‘No more delay. We must set off immediately. Shout for Puttulal, tell him to bring his motorcar. He’ll have sat down at his spinning wheel by now. He can’t sleep without spinning a while; that’s what driving has done to him.’
We climbed into the car.
We were driving through a forest. It was very dark. A jackal howled somewhere among the thick clumps of weeds guarding a pond. It must have been about half past three in the morning. The noise gave Puttulal such a shock that he drove the car straight into a pool of water. Meanwhile, a frog had got into his clothes and was hopping around wildly in the region of his back. What a shrieking he set up! I tried to soothe him by saying, ‘Puttulal, you keep complaining of backache. Let the frog jump about all it likes, you’ll never get such a fine massage for free!’
I clambered up on to the roof of the car and began calling, ‘Banamali, Banamali!’
Not a sound from the stupid fellow. It was clear he was bundled up in a rug on the platform at Bolpur 28 station, snoring loudly. I felt strongly inclined to go tickle his nose with a fountain pen and make him sneeze. Perhaps that would wake him up.
Meanwhile, my hair was drenched in muddy water. I couldn’t possibly present myself at our friend’s sister-in-law’s without combing it properly. Roused by the hullabaloo, the ducks by the pond had set up a furious honking. With a single bound, I landed among them and, grabbing one, scrubbed vigorously at my head with its wing. That restored my hair to some degree of order. Puttulal suddenly remarked, ‘You were right, Dadababu. That frog hopping over my back is really making me feel quite comfortable. I’m
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