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| Kali, what family are You from? You're absorbed in Your own fun and games. Who really understands Your incomparable beauty? If I look at You I can't tell day from night Though You're black, glossier than smeared mascara You don't wear saris, gold or jewels Your hair's all tousled and You're always at the cremation grounds, even so My mind forgets all this I don't know how. Look! The Jewel of men masses of matted hair and snakes on His head is He devoted to Your feet? Who are You to Him? Who is He to You? Who would ever guess that the Crest-Jewel of the gods the Shelter of the the shelterless the Entertainer of the universe would cling to Your feet as the most cherished treasure? Kamalakanta can't comprerhend Your endless virtures. The earth and sky are lit by Your beauty.* |
| Use your mental eye and see her matchless form She is brilliant like lightning cleaving black clouds, and the sun and moon, clouds and stars hover at Her feet. She's beautiful beyond compare, and so sweet, with moons by the thousands in Her toenails, and serpents twined for braids ... Stay like this, my Three-eyed Mother, and dance!* |
| * Poems to Kali and Uma from Bengal translated by Rachel McDermott |