Collected Poems - Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Songs to Myrtilla 27
O plaintive, murmuring reed, begin thy strain;
O plaintive, murmuring reed.
Nisa to Mopsus is decreed,
The moonwhite Nisa to a swarthy swain.
What love-gift now shall Hope not bring?
Election dwells no more with beauty’s king.
The wild weed now has wed the rose,
Now ivy on the bramble grows;
Too happy lover, fill the lamp of bliss!
Too happy lover, drunk with Nisa’s kiss!
For thee pale Cynthia leaves her golden car,
For thee from Tempe stoops the white and evening star.
O plaintive, murmuring reed, renew thy strain;
O solace anguish yet again.
I thought Love soft as velvet sleep,
Sweeter than dews nocturnal breezes weep,
Cool as water in a murmuring pass
And shy as violets in the vernal grass,
But hard as Nisa’s heart is he
And salt as the unharvestable sea.
O plaintive, murmuring reed, renew thy strain.
One morn she came; her mouth
Breathing the odours of the south,
With happy eyes and heaving bosom fain.
She asked for fruit long-stored in autumn’s hold.
These gave I; from the branch dislodged I threw
Sweet-hearted apples in their age of gold
And pears divine for taste and hue.
And one I saw, should all the rest excel;
But error led my plucking hand astray
And with a sudden sweet dismay
My heart into her apron fell.
O plaintive, murmuring reed, renew thy strain.
My bleeding heart awhile