Short Poems

Under the crescent moon's faint glow
The washerman's bat resounds afar,
And the autumn breeze sighs tenderly.
But my heart has gone to the Tartar war,
To bleak Kansuh and the steppes of snow,
Calling my husband back to me.

Now, O Hari, help my honour.
Thou knowest all, Searcher of the inmost heart: no right deeds have I done.
Evil leaves me not, not even for one brief moment's space.
The bundle of the world's deceits I bound and bore upon my head.
Wife, wealth and sons, in this ocean of infatuation, all wisdom and understanding are lost.
Sur the sinner swiftly raise, O Lord, his boat fills fast.

When Alexander died, he gave command
They from his coffin should let hang his hand,
That all men who had seen him formerly,
Exulting in the pomp of royalty,
Might now see that, with empty hands, alone,
He, too, the universal road had gone,
And that, of all his treasures, nothing save
That empty hand went with him to the grave.

I am sinking fast: why dost thou not raise me up?
O Lord, friend of the humble and treasury of Mercy, remove Thy servant's woe.
The clouds of self have gathered: they pour out the water of infatuation: the river of covetousness is impassable.
We who are overwhelmed in it can find no foot hold. Thou only art our refuge.
Every moment thirsty desires flash round me as lightning: these have consumed, O Lord, body and soul.
The thunder roll of this fearful world confounds me and fills me with misery and dread.

My mind, O Lord, is without understanding.
Thy lotus-feet, the treasure-house of happiness, it has renounced and strays wearily hither and thither like a dog.
Ever the fool strays searching in vain in every pot, in any empty dwelling.
For his covetousness nowhere and no wise the soul finds satisfaction.
Wherever I go, terror confounds me, and gnarled sticks bruise my feet.
All whistles the witless simpleton obeys and suffers insult every where.
Thou knowest all: Thou art fulfilled in all: of the vast palace of the universe the true Lord.

O Lord, if thou forget Thy promise.
Then, O over-flowing mercy, whither shall I repair, miserable, destroyed by my own deeds?
O Merciful, that thy praise purifies the sinful, this the four Vedas declare.
Proof are the sacred stories told of Ganika, Biyada, Ajamil and of their salvation.
In love or enmity, uprightly or perversely, in worthy or unworthy strain whoever thought, O Lord, on Thee.
Thou, O Treasury of Mercy, made no delay with honour to rescue him from troubles.
O Hari; the qualities of Thy name are un-numbered: fulfil Thy promise now to save.

A wandering exile, I came away to Long Beach.
I gazed toward home, beyond the horizon,
Toward the city of Chang-an.
I heard some one in the Yellow Crane House,
Playing on the sweet bamboo flute
The tune of the " Falling Plum Flowers " ...
It was May in the waterside city.

A dog barks afar where the waters croon.
The peach flowers are deeper-tinted, wet with rain.
The wood is so thick that one espies a deer at times.
But cannot hear the noon bell in this lonely glen.
The wild bamboos sway in the blue mist,
And on the green mountainside flying cascades glisten
What way has he gone? There is none to tell;
Sadly I lean against a pine tree here and there.

One winnows empty husks; and to what profit? Winnow that wherein is always grain.

The body is an empty husk, an empty husk is Maya: a life without Hari is empty and vain:
The Pandit is an empty husk: empty are all his words: without Hari all the tales men tell are empty.

The temple is an empty husk, and pleasure and enjoyment: and empty is reliance upon other gods.
Faith in the Name: this is the true devotion: with heart and word and deed Rai Das proclaims it.

Stone-Fish Lake is like Lake Tung-t'ing —
When the top of Chün is green and the summer tide is rising.
... With the mountain for a table, and the lake a fount of wine,
The tipplers all are settled along the sandy shore.
Though a stiff wind for days has roughened the water,
Wine-boats constantly arrive....
I have a long-necked gourd and, happy on Pa Island,
I am pouring a drink in every direction, doing away with care.