1 FAIN would I win my friend to kindly friendship. So may the Sage, come through the air's wide ocean, Remembering the earth and days to follow, obtain a son, the issue of his father.
2 Thy friend loves not the friendship which considers her who is near in kindred as stranger. Sons of the mighty Asura, the Heroes, supporters of the heavens, see far around them.
uśánti ghā té amŕ̥tāsa etád ékasya cit tyajásam mártiyasya | ní te máno mánasi dhāyi asmé jányuḥ pátis tanúvam ā́ viviśyāḥ ||
3 Yea, this the Immortals seek of thee with longing, progeny of the sole existing mortal. Then let thy soul and mine be knit together, and as a loving husband take thy consort.
ná yát purā́ cakr̥mā́ kád dha nūnám r̥tā́ vádanto ánr̥taṃ rapema | gandharvó apsú ápiyā ca yóṣā sā́ no nā́bhiḥ paramáṃ jāmí tán nau ||
4 Shall we do now what we ne’er did aforetime? we who spake righteously now talk impurely? Gandharva in the floods, the Dame of Waters-such is our bond, such our most lofty kinship.
gárbhe nú nau janitā́ dámpatī kar devás tváṣṭā savitā́ viśvárūpaḥ | nákir asya prá minanti vratā́ni véda nāv asyá pr̥thivī́ utá dyaúḥ ||
5 Even in the womb God Tvaṣṭar, Vivifier, shaping all forms, Creator, made us consorts. None violates his holy ordinances: that we are his the heavens and earth acknowledge.
kó asyá veda prathamásya áhnaḥ ká īṃ dadarśa ká ihá prá vocat | br̥hán mitrásya váruṇasya dhā́ma kád u brava āhano vī́ciyā nr̥̄́n ||
6 Who knows that earliest day whereof thou speakest? Who hatb beheld it? Who can here declare it? Great is the Law of Varuṇa and Mitra. What, wanton! wilt thou say to men to tempt them?
7 I, Yami, am possessed by love of Yama, that I may rest on the same couch beside him. I as a wife would yield me to my husband. Like car-wheels let us speed to meet each other.
ná tiṣṭhanti ná ní miṣanti eté devā́nāṃ spáśa ihá yé cáranti | anyéna mád āhano yāhi tū́yaṃ téna ví vr̥ha ráthiyeva cakrā́ ||
8 They stand not still, they never close their eyelids, those sentinels of Gods who wander round us. Not me-go quickly, wanton, with another, and hasten like a chariot wheel to meet him.
9 May Sūrya's eye with days and nights endow him, and ever may his light spread out before him. In heaven and earth the kindred Pair commingle. On Yam! be the unbrotherly act of Yama.
10 Sure there will come succeeding times when brothers and sisters will do acts unmeet for kinsfolk. Not me, O fair one, —seek another husband, and make thine arm a pillow for thy consort.
kím bhrā́tāsad yád anāthám bhávāti kím u svásā yán nírr̥tir nigáchāt | kā́mamūtā bahú etád rapāmi tanúvā me tanúvaṃ sám pipr̥gdhi ||
11 Is he a brother when no lord is left her? Is she a sister when Destruction cometh? Forced by my love these many words I utter. Come near, and hold me in thy close embraces.
ná vā́ u te tanúvā tanúvaṃ sám papr̥cyām pāpám āhur yáḥ svásāraṃ nigáchāt | anyéna mát pramúdaḥ kalpayasva ná te bhrā́tā subhage vaṣṭi etát ||
12 I will not fold mine arms about thy body: they call it sin when one comes near his sister. Not me, —prepare thy pleasures with another: thy brother seeks not this from thee, O fair one.
13 Alas! thou art indeed a weakling, Yama we find in thee no trace of heart or spirit. As round the tree the woodbine clings, another will cling albout thee girt as with a girdle.
14 Embrace another, Yami; let another, even as the woodbine rings the tree, enfold thee. Win thou his heart and let him win thy fancy, and he shall form with thee a blest alliance.
Complete text
Maṇḍala I